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| Middle Perry Tank Creek, AZ | |
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| | Middle Perry Tank Creek, AZ | | | |
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Middle Perry Tank Creek, AZ
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| Hiking | 5.70 Miles |
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| | Hiking | 5.70 Miles | 5 Hrs 15 Mns | | 1.09 mph |
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none
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| no partners | | I wanted to have a look at the pools (plainly visible on satellite maps) that sit in the canyon bottom below the large rim-side ruins, Perry Tank Canyon and Rattlesnake, in the middle of Perry Mesa.
I dropped into the canyon just below the main Rattlesnake pool - I had walked down the upper part of the creek to this point a couple weeks ago. As I traveled below this pool the terrain was rocky and there were only a few petroglyphs - a preview that the ancient inhabitants didn't spend a lot of time along this stretch.
A good waypoint for this area is the power line crossing. The first "big" pool is reached just before the lines pass overhead. The canyon takes a left turn here and there is a substantial drop to the pool. Though there is a nice wall next to the pool, I didn't see any petroglyphs.
Continuing under the lines to the next pool the canyon bottom changes dramatically from a jumble of boulders to scoured bedrock. Don't know the geological classification but this is nice red rock with white veins. The 2nd pool (about 500' below the Perry Tank Canyon Ruin) is under another big pour off. This is a pretty wild looking place and petroglyphs are pretty unlikely. I had planned to climb back to the mesa from near here so I didn't try to go to the pool level and it didn't look very easy. There was a fair amount of broken pottery at the top though - possibly tossed from the cliff top high above. I don't think the Perry Mesans bothered with these pools since there were easier-to-reach water sources upstream.
I exited the canyon up an overgrown and rocky break to the Rattlesnake side. I took some time to walk the perimeter of the ruins and found a few glyphs, metates, and grinding slicks. Then I looped back to the car. |
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