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| Deep Creek Cliff Dwelling - Sierra Ancha, AZ | |
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| | Deep Creek Cliff Dwelling - Sierra Ancha, AZ | | | |
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Deep Creek Cliff Dwelling - Sierra Ancha, AZ
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| Hiking | 6.00 Miles |
2,000 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.00 Miles | | | |
| 2,000 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | This was a hike to check out a possible cliff dwelling site high on the western side of Cherry Creek Canyon. Grasshopper and I had seen this long south facing cliff overhang 6 weeks ago but had to abort our attempt to reach it after hours of trying to hack our way through heavy brush. On another trip I was able to verify that there were ruin walls under the overhang after studying some telephoto pictures taken from a distant view point. This site was of special interest to me because I could find no mention of it in Lange's "Echoes in the Canyons ...". I recruited friendofThundergod to come along since it was too risky for me to do alone. GH was unable to join us but I kept him posted on our progress with location checks from my SPOT. FOTG was anxious to add another pile of rocks to his list of ruins found so we met at Board Tree Saddle late Friday afternoon. From there we drove down FR203 to a shady campsite next to a babbling brook.
The next morning we tried to get an early start to avoid the heat but didn't hit the trail until 8:00 am. The first two miles went fast - GH and I had pruned a path through the manzanita part of the way on an earlier trip. FOTG and his dogs took the lead when we reached the steep slope covered with loose shale and thickets of manzita. With their many miles of off-trail experience in the rugged terrain of the Superstitions they soon found us a safe path across and then straight up the slope to the cliff far above. We arrived at the east end of the cliff overhang and immediately spotted the remains of a small wall. Proceeding west along the overhang we encountered many partial walls sticking out perpendicular to the cliff wall. We counted at least twenty walls including some that had fallen down over a distance of about 0.1 miles. That would mean there were at least 10 rooms at this site which would have qualified it as a large cliff dwelling in Lange's "Echoes in the Canyons: ...". It puzzles me that he did not mention it in his book - is it possible he didn't know about it after 20 years of studying the ruins of the SA?
The walls were rock and mortar construction with the hand applied exterior plaster still in place on many walls. Unfortunately the overhang did not protrude far enough to protect the outer parts of the walls which had collapsed. There were no intact ceilings and only the burned stubs of a couple beams were left in one wall. It appeared that the roofs had been destroyed by fire before the walls crumbled. Pottery sherds littered the ground, some pieces were fairly large. There were also several metates - all but one were broken. The metates were some of the most heavily worn examples I have seen indicating that perhaps there were lots of mouths to feed at this site.
Happy with the size of our find we headed back to camp. After resting for a while in the shade at camp we decided to drive down FR203 for a few miles to try to identify which side canyon contained a possible cliff dwelling I had photographed from a distance on a previous trip. Unfortunately I could not recall which canyon and there were three possibilities. The plan was to hike to this possible ruin site on Sunday once we determined which canyon. The first canyon we passed was obviously not the one. Before we could check out the other two a nasty sharp edged rock managed to puncture a tire sidewall on FOTG's Xterra. After consulting the manual and finding the necessary tools and spare tire we were well into installing the spare when this guy with an ill-tempered large German Shepard comes strolling down the road. My first thought was that he was a mountain man who lived up some remote SA canyon. He told us his Jeep had a dead battery about 1/4 mile down the road and asked if we could "give him a jump". The 1/4 mile turned into almost 2 miles but we got him on his way.
On the way back to camp we spotted some landmarks up a canyon that matched my picture of the possible cliff dwelling. Lee decided to head back to HW288 the next morning because of his tire issue. I took off to look for the cliff dwelling. Unfortunately with the flat tire and helping out the stranger the day before, I had gotten confused and went up the wrong canyon. So no second cliff dwelling. I planned to stay in the SA for the next couple days so decided to pack up camp and explore an area on the east side of Cherry Creek near Sombrero Peak. |
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