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| Upper Squaw Creek Ruin, AZ | |
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| | Upper Squaw Creek Ruin, AZ | | | |
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Upper Squaw Creek Ruin, AZ
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| Hiking | 7.57 Miles |
1,445 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.57 Miles | 4 Hrs 42 Mns | | 1.77 mph |
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| 1,445 ft AEG | 25 Mns Break | | |
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| no partners | | I've always been intrigued by the area between Perry Mesa and the Verde. There is a lot of 12-14th-ish century ruins in both areas so you know there has to be some (many?) in between. And while a curious persistent guy can find some academic references to the well studied centers (PM and Verde) it's not really true about the space between.
I had one vague clue there was a ruin near the top of Squaw Creek and decided best approach was from the Cave Creek Road side. FR602 was reasonably Subaruable and I drove a little more than a mile uphill, leaving the car at the hill crest where it opened up enough to get off the track.
I walked the road to the junction with Hogan Springs Trail, Trail #8; BobP's GPS track for his trip to Hogan Cabin a few years ago was helpful. The trail diagonals up the hill and is not too hard to follow. At the top there is a fence and the drainages on the far side slope downhill to the west - this is where Squaw Creek starts.
I noticed a little knoll on the far side of the fence and checked it out. There was a low ruin and a lot of tiny pottery sherds on top, so a good start. From there I contoured cross country past Indian Springs and then on to the shelf I was heading for.
It was a big flat area, a few hundred yards on a side. I started seeing a lot of pottery and what seemed to be some old very low walls. But as I continued I eventually came to a very cool ruin on the west edge. There were a lot of rooms with high stacked walls - probably most of these had been excavated some time in the past. This ruin was the equal of many of the big Perry Mesa Ruins. A couple interesting features were 1) a perimeter wall on the east side with a well delineated entrance, 2) a large number of "portable" metates that had been gathered into a pile by previous visitors....those are rare on Perry Mesa, 3) a piece of Perry Mesa can be seen from this place, and 4) I didn't find any petroglyphs.
I headed down to Squaw Creek to return. I had a few other places I wanted to explore on the way back but I ran out of time, so no idea whether I was just lucky today or the area is rich in cultural artifacts. |
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