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| Hiking | 4.74 Miles |
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| | Hiking | 4.74 Miles | 3 Hrs 39 Mns | | 1.33 mph |
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| no partners | | My wife went out of town leaving me home alone with the cats. Had to think of something to do on a hot day....
Put together a driving loop I like to do with a short walk to a suspected ruin and a slightly longer one up a butte on Perry Mesa I hadn't been to before. The drive is Seven Springs Rd. to Bloody Basin, up the hill to Perry Mesa and out to I-17. @kenjacobsen had spotted what looked like a ruin not far off Bloody Basin Rd, but we thought it was in a sort of unexpected place and could find no reference. More to the point it was about an hour in on a dirt road which ever direction you came so it needed to be combined with something else. I settled on adding a butte up on Perry Mesa I hadn't been to before.
The suspected ruin did check out. Big but very overgrown and plenty dug up in the middle of a busy cow pasture. It's about the same size as some of the big ruins up on Perry Mesa but this one just sits on a terrace above Mud Springs. Curious to learn something about it I emailed a pro and got a nice response: Mud Springs Ruin is a known 14th century site but there is not yet an academic study of it or the similar ruins in that area - but maybe soon!
I continued the drive up to the mesa top. First time I've done it this direction and I liked the change but it can't match the "falling off the earth" feeling you get going the other way. I parked just off Bloody Basin Road and walked the hill toward Mesa Butte. It seems like a good place to look for "ancient signs" but I knew from previous trips there's not much in this area and all I found was a couple pieces of broken pottery. Still there are nice views to the higher points north and it was worth a look around. |
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