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| Hiking | 8.55 Miles |
548 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.55 Miles | 5 Hrs 3 Mns | | 1.77 mph |
| 548 ft AEG | 13 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Last fall I walked around on the cinder plain south of Wupatki and was surprised to find the walking was nice and there was plenty of stuff to see: mainly old native ruins and lots of interesting painted pottery pieces. With it getting hot again I planned another trip, drawing a loop that connected 10 ruins. Most of these are actually labeled on some topo maps and a couple others I spotted in the satellite pics as viewed in HAZ Route Editor. My wife Catherine decided to come along.
I knew the approach might be challenging and parts of 150 are "just" Subaruable though most of the driving in flat cinder country is no problem. We found pottery pieces almost as soon as we left the car and it got much more concentrated as we approached ruin #1. If I had to estimate the relative concentrations I'd say plain pottery (brown or gray or reddish) was about 10X more common than painted black on white, which was 10X more concentrated than corrugated, with smaller amounts of a few other types. We found interesting pottery all day and were getting a little bored by the end (as you will by my pictures).
Similarly the ruins impressed me by being substantial even if they were mainly small (a few rooms I'd guess). The fact that the rubble piles seemed tall means there was a lot of stone in the original structures. I'd have guessed multiple stories based on their height though it seems unlikely they could do that with the coarse volcanic boulders. Anyway they were similar - long and narrow and tall (rough guess 50'x15'x6'). You'll get bored by these pictures too.
One interesting thing: one of the map-marked ruins turned out to be a ballcourt. These are a big deal in archaeology studies of the culture. If I remember right the one at Wupatki is the most northerly known one and this one is just south of it.
The loop went about as expected. Good trip, lots to see.
Not anxious to return on road 150 we went down the power lines to the Strawberry Crater trailhead then west out to the main road. No picnic but probably a little better for a high clearance vehicle. |
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