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| Hiking | 6.10 Miles |
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| | Hiking | 6.10 Miles | | | |
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| partners | | I returned to Lost Canyon after several previous visits to explore a set of Sinaguan cliff dwellings that I found two weeks prior. I was in a hurry that day, finding the location at the end of the day just before I needed to start hiking out to head home. It was a steep climb up to the ruins, and my hiking partner waited below while I climbed up to explore the canyon the day we first visited. After confirming we'd found the ruins, I wanted to bring her back to see them and spend a little more time there myself.
We heard thunder to our west on the hike in and wondered if we might end up waiting out a thunderstorm at the ruins, but the rain missed us. Knowing the location this time shortened the hike substantially, though I did miss the initial unmarked turn off the trail on my first attempt despite being there so recently. Oops...should have loaded the GPS route I'd recorded on the previous visit. But we got back on track quickly, and after a climb, we reached the ruins.
This site, spread along a canyon wall, has some unique features that I hadn't seen at many of the other cliff dwelling sites around Sedona. There are multiple pictograph panels along the canyon walls of various figures, animals, shapes, and symbols, painted in a range of reds, yellows, and browns. There's also a large hole carved into the ground, which I've read is a cist, a storage pit where natives stored grain, covering the hole with a large, flat rock to protect it from animals. Portions of the canyon wall have moss/ferns growing out of cracks where water was seeping out--possibly a natural water source for the original inhabitants.
There are two main cliff dwellings, both with low walls and an open frame for the entrances. The main cliff dwelling site has more pictographs, and further down the canyon wall is an area where more structures may have existed, but it looks part of the wall/overhang collapsed at some point, burying whatever might have been there in rubble. Overall, a very interesting site, and one the lesser-known cliff dwelling locations in the area. |
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