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| Upper Cherry Creek Cliff Dwelling, AZ | |
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| | Upper Cherry Creek Cliff Dwelling, AZ | | | |
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Upper Cherry Creek Cliff Dwelling, AZ
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| Hiking | 3.00 Miles |
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| | Hiking | 3.00 Miles | | | |
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| partners | | This was a day trip to the Sierra Ancha with Grasshopper and Trekkin Gecko to hike in to a lesser known cliff dwelling in upper Cherry Creek Canyon. GH and I had previously spotted the cliff dwelling on the ledge of a cliff high up on the canyon wall on a previous trip back in November. Since spotting this dwelling a little research revealed we wouldn't be the first ones on HAZ to visit this site. http://hikearizona.com/photoset=6544&start=0
Like most of the Sierra Ancha cliff dwellings this one was not easy to get to. Although its distance from the nearest 4x4 road was not far the terrain was extremely steep, brushy and strewn with house sized boulders. As usual, I had plotted a gps planning track using Goggle earth which attempted to avoid as much of the brush as possible without getting cliffed out on the way. The first half mile was easy on relatively flat ground and the planning track successful guided us through small clearings in the brush. We were surprised to discover the remains of a surface pueblo or compound. The crumbled down rock walls covered an area about 100 ft x 50 ft. We didn't spend much time at this ruin but did find several pottery sherds that appeared to be Salado Red Corrugated which is fairly common in the ruins of this area based on my limited experience.
After struggling through some very steep sections of the hike and traversing some distance across a brush and boulder covered hillside we reach the location of the cliff dwellings. At the base of the cliff we found the ruins of a number of rooms, some fairly large. A short section of wall still had the adobe mud plaster on the interior surface. There was ample evidence that cows had found the site and had used a couple of the rooms as their own private barn. I suspect cows have been visiting this site for many years given the long ranching history of this area and may have played a major role in knocking down many of these ruin walls. I am amazed at where these range cows wander. I have seen cow dung in the Pueblo Canyon cliff dwellings, at the base of the Elephant Rock Arch and in the Grapevine Trail Indian Ruins. In one of the ground level rooms we found a wooden frame with a screen bottom used by someone, maybe pot hunters, to sift the dirt for artifacts. The name "RON" was proudly stenciled on the side. In the screen box were three empty sardine cans - strange artifacts for an ancient Indian ruin. We also found two broken metates.
On a cliff ledge about 20-30 feet above the ground were several small rock walled structures with adobe mud mortar between the flat rocks. Access to this ledge would not be easy. GH and I who are somewhat lacking in rock climbing skills had hoped that trekkin gecko would help us by climbing to the ledge and dropping a rope to us. It wasn't long before she had climbed up to the ledge, fastened a climbing rope to a stout tree growing on the ledge and was getting ready to belay GH and I as we climbed up the rock face of the cliff. GH and I took one look at the climbing route and the worried look on trekkin gecko's face and decided we weren't ready for this initiation to rock climbing. I decided I would be happy with some telephoto pictures I took of the ruins from a high point about 50 yds away and with any pictures trekkin gecko got while she was on the ledge. So we called it a day and headed back for the car. |
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