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| Anderson Mesa - Kinnikinnik, AZ | |
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| | Anderson Mesa - Kinnikinnik, AZ | | | |
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Anderson Mesa - Kinnikinnik, AZ
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| Hiking | 6.13 Miles |
803 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.13 Miles | 3 Hrs 57 Mns | | 1.82 mph |
| 803 ft AEG | 35 Mns Break | | | |
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| no linked trail guides |
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| no partners | | A little internet research reveals that there were several large Sinagua pueblos on Anderson Mesa 700 yrs ago. I couldn't find much more information but decided to go look for the Kinnikinnick Pueblo which is located somewhere on the mesa edge looking over Kinnikinick Creek (BTW there are enough spellings of Kinni-whatever I'll just continue random spellings). At ~7000' this seemed like a nice place to visit at the end of July.
The mesa roads were Subaruable to our planned starting point (not far from Indian Ruins Tank) a mile or two south of Kinnikinick Lake. We continued along a jeep road then veered over to the mesa edge. It was good walking: the grass was sparse and low and the Pinyon and Junipers were spaced "enough".
After an hour or so I noticed some obsidian pieces that looked like they'd been worked and then a few pieces of pottery. We followed the pottery in the direction of increasing density and soon there was pottery everywhere - getting close to something! I'm used to finding simple plain brown pottery in the places I visit further south, but there was a much greater variety here. I understand there was more trade between the different groups up here.
Anyway we had a lot of fun picking out the interesting sherds, the many, many obsidian edges and even a tiny piece of turquoise. At first it wasn't clear where the ruin was but we found it north of the main pottery concentration. It was impressive in size (partially excavated in 1940, I think it's 100+ rooms) but really just an overgrown hill with a lot of rock debris. I only noticed one place showing wall detail, apparently left open by the excavators.
We continued north a bit further til the pottery was gone then looped back. Soaked my feet in Kinnikinick Lake on the drive out - a lot of water in a nice looking lake. |
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