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| Grapevine Trail Indian Ruins - Sierra Ancha, AZ | |
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| | Grapevine Trail Indian Ruins - Sierra Ancha, AZ | | | |
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Grapevine Trail Indian Ruins - Sierra Ancha, AZ
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| partners | | This was our second day hike out of Camp Grasshopper in upper Cherry Creek Canyon. This time we were off to find some Indian ruins in the cliffs above the Grapevine Trail (#135). These ruins located in a cliff alcove had been located back in 2011 by CannondaleKid. http://hikearizona.com/photoset=15603 Although the structures are not all that significant compared to the better known SA ruins, the pictographs at this site are unique with vivid red, white, yellow and orange colors. I have never seen pictographs like these at any other SA cliff dwelling site.
We drove the 2 miles down FR203 from camp in GH's jeep and took off down the Grapevine Trail. After going some distance on this trail we started the off trail hike up to the cliffs above. Large patches of manzanita blocked our path several times. Some detours got us around most of it but not before I impaled my wrist on a sharp broken branch. After some quick first aid we were again on our way and arrived at the ruins exactly where CK said they would be. There were no intact roofs or roof beams at this site. Perhaps an ancient forest fire burned all the wood parts of the structure. Some walls still had the adobe mortar and plastered walls with the finger prints of the folks that applied it to the walls. There was a main larger set of ruins with maybe 6 to 8 rooms visible now but maybe several more that had crumbled down to the point of not being recognizable. Most of the pictographs were on the walls of the cliffs at this location. A second smaller set of ruins was about 150 ft away along the face of the cliff. A Canyon Wren acted like he was the current occupant of this second set of ruins.
The pictographs were quite vivid in color for their age and mostly zig-zag lines. I've heard lines like these represent snakes or the crooked canyons or ??? - nobody knows. The only animal figures I could make out were three red lizards at the smaller second set of ruins. I wonder if the pictographs were maybe done later by other Indians and not by the original inhabitants.
GH and I spent some time looking for the metate and collection of pottery sherds shown in one of CK's photos from his 2011 trip but could not find them. http://hikearizona.com/photo=195202 I include the link to his picture because many of the pottery sherds have the corrugated outer surface like the ones I found at the hilltop ruins near Elephant rock - not all that far from these ruins. I could not believe anyone would have taken them. So when I got home I started studying my pictures of the ruins and there they were by a small very low rock wall about 40 feet from where I took the picture. GH had even walked right by them on his way to check another area for ruins. Makes me wonder how much cool stuff we miss seeing on our hikes. 
We cut our hike short and headed back to camp. GH was anxious to start preparations for dinner that night as he was expecting two guests (myself and BeeBee). |
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Route Editor
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