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| Hiking | 6.34 Miles |
1,252 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.34 Miles | 4 Hrs 25 Mns | | 1.46 mph |
| 1,252 ft AEG | 5 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | I've been having fun lately finding and visiting ancient sites between Perry Mesa and the Verde River. Most of those were located by looking at satellite pictures. For this trip though I used a recent archaeology paper which studied an area near the Seven Springs Road about 20mi north of Cave Creek. I was surprised to learn there were substantial ruins on the flats along the creeks in Roundtree Canyon near Holmes and Lime Creeks.
I drew a loop and planned to head west from the road but I could hear the voices of campers in that direction so I reversed the loop and headed east. I found plenty of pottery pieces and a faint room outline on the first little knob and more as I continued. Again I heard voices ahead of me (this never happens) and eventually found out it was a ranch hand talking to his horse. I told him I wasn't "exactly" lost and he continued looking for strays. I passed a pretty substantial ruin above the road near CP Butte then continued across the road and up the ridge to the west.
The academic paper said this ridge (and the one to it's north which I'd walk back on) is covered with single room ruins. I passed quite a few but I think the habitation is indicated more by the flaked black rock all along the way rather than clear room outlines. I also passed a few faint petroglyphs.
As I finished the loop back on the flats I passed the main ruin which is just west of the road. It's large (50 rooms?) but very overgrown in the forest. In a couple places it looked like helpful campers had tried reconstructing some walls.
Lesson for me: not all these large sites are on high spots with (defensive) views. Maybe this one is a little earlier. |
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Route Editor
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