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| New River Wander with Cline Creek Ruins, AZ | | -
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| | New River Wander with Cline Creek Ruins, AZ | | | |
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New River Wander with Cline Creek Ruins, AZ
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| Hiking | 8.98 Miles |
2,450 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.98 Miles | 7 Hrs 1 Min | | 1.48 mph |
| 2,450 ft AEG | 56 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | I've been having fun lately walking around the desert between the town of New River and the mesa of New River. There are a number of known ruins on the hilltops west of the New River Mesa which means the many high points in between are also good places to look.
I plotted a route today which would take me to a few new ones and up to a high shelf before looping back over a butte I know to have a nice ruin. This Cline Creek Ruin is a little confusing (to me) because a similar nice ruin on the mountain to the east is also called Cline Creek Ruin by some. I'm not sure about the name designations, but I planned to hit the butte-version, not the mountain-version.
Turned out to be another good loop. By now I'm a little surprised this area isn't more popular with hikers as it is nice country and easy to get to. There aren't trail heads and trails per se but there are plenty of jeep roads, many disused but plenty good for walking. The area does get some traffic by ATVs, shooters, and hunters.
As usual in the area I found a lot of pottery along the way and a few areas that were clearly habitation sites. When I got up to the shelf not far below the mesa edge I briefly considered continuing on to the mesa then to Black Mesa and out Spur Cross. That would be a nice one way trip. But I kept with the plan.
While looking around a habitation site just below the shelf I was startled by some very nearby javelina barks. They didn't show themselves but I kept a distance. I checked out a rectangular bare spot visible in the satellite view - nothing much there but a concentration of pottery so probably not natural.
I continued to find vaguely interesting things as I headed toward the Cline Creek Butte and finally a few petroglyphs.
The ruins on the butte top are impressive indeed, mainly because it has many rooms on many levels covering a big area. Detracting from the experience is the presence of some graffiti and that fact that the ruin walls in many places have been re-stacked.
Looping back I continued to find pottery concentrations and even a few glyphs. Nice day, nice walking if you can avoid the nasty cholla. |
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Route Editor
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