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| Sierra Ancha Cliff Dwelling Search, AZ | |
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| | Sierra Ancha Cliff Dwelling Search, AZ | | | |
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Sierra Ancha Cliff Dwelling Search, AZ
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| Hiking | 3.60 Miles |
1,800 AEG |
| | Hiking | 3.60 Miles | | | |
| 1,800 ft AEG | | 20 LBS Pack | | |
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| partners | | | There is a cliff dwelling high on the cliffs in a side canyon off of Cherry Creek Canyon in the Sierra Ancha Mtns that I spotted in a super-zoom photo over a year ago. Since then I have been trying to find a safe route to hike to this dwelling. This would be my third attempt to reach this difficult to access location high on a cliff ledge. I enlisted fellow HAZer, FriendofThundergod and his two dogs, Cup and Blanco, to come along since this was not a hike I wanted to attempt by myself. The hike was short, only about 2 miles one way, but climbed 1500 ft up to a high ledge on the cliffs above. This time we were armed with a GPS track made with the help of pictures taken from the cliff tops above on previous trips and Google Earth. This GPS track combined with FOTG's (and his dogs') experience at finding routes through rugged terrain enabled us to reach the ancient cliff dwelling without too much difficulty. However the steepness of the climb and pushing our way through the manzanita and scrub oak was exhausting for such a short hike. I did get off track on the way back when Lee and the dogs got ahead of me. I got cliffed out but Blanco came back to show me the way - love that dog. The cliff dwelling site had several partial walls but no surviving roof tops. Three of the walls still had some of the adobe plaster left between the rocks and one fairly complete wall still had the adobe plaster on the interior side of the wall. There was no obvious evidence of frequent visitors but we only found a couple of pottery sherds. So it turned out to not be a major find compared to some of the well known sites in the Sierra Ancha. Of course the real fun is the challenge of getting there. |
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