Ancha Adventure Photoset • jillyonanadventure • 2020-12-19 • HikeArizona.COM

Ancha Adventure, AZ

	2020-12-19
	22 by jillyonanadventure

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Ancha Adventure, AZ

Hiking	6.41 Miles	1,733 AEG

Hiking	6.41 Miles	7 Hrs 24 Mns	1.18 mph
	1,733 ft AEG	1 Hour 57 Mns Break

Linked

linked

Cooper Forks Canyon Cliff Dwellings

Partners

partners

jharvey33

klfranz

Context note: I am an intermediate hiker with a decent amount of off trail experience; in my opinion this is a very difficult and physically draining hike. You’ll need very high clearance {we needed to use 4x4} to get to the TH. You start going on a very steep decline into a canyon/wash area. You’ll be navigating this travel across/around the creek for a while. If there is heavy flow, you will not be able to keep your feet dry. It was fairly dry for us so we didn’t have to get our feet wet. You’re basically picking the path of least resistance; bushwhacking or rock hopping, you can choose. There is a sharp right going up that we initially missed. This led to thicker, sketchier terrain fast. James went to check out and see if there was a passable way to connect back to the trail, but ultimately decided we needed to backtrack to find the turnoff. This cost us a good hour of time with route finding. Kara and I were running two different tracks to best help us figure out best paths, but they were still hard to follow at several times during the hike as this has no discernible trail. You are just traveling straight up for a long time; there are patches of loose dirt & scree that make you need to be very careful on foot placement. You then have to traverse across a huge area like a Boulder field. You are on an extremely steep incline walking sideways across here and it was super sketchy. Next it’s more steep uphill that is so loose that it’s one foot forwards and slide back over and over again; scree in various sizes is everywhere. After a final push to the cliff, we finally reached the dwellings!

There are multiple rooms and floors to this location and it’s pretty intact & views were spectacular up there! The only possible way to reach an upper dwelling is a sketchy scramble. You’ll have to hold on for dear life while scooting sideways and trying to avoid falling off the cliff. Then you will need to scramble {vertical} up the final push. It’s worth the climb if you are debating it! We enjoyed the views for a while before heading back down the way we came. The dwellings are beautiful so we were very happy to have seen them. The travel back moved a bit faster going downhill and not missing any turns. Getting through the creek bed isn’t any more pleasant going the other way - pants/long sleeves recommended or you’ll leave scratched up! The final trek up to get back to the vehicle was very strenuous and we ended in the dark, but thankfully we’d set up our tents earlier. Time to eat some food and rest up for a difficult hike the following day. Overall it had gorgeous views and great dwellings, but be sure you’re ready for the challenge and plan timing according to daylight hours. It may not be as difficult for an experienced off trail hiker but {in my opinion} this site needs more options/logs that speaks for intermediate hiking skills.

Autumn Foliage Observation Isolated
Some remaining orange and yellows

	Pueblo Canyon	Medium flow	Medium flow

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