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| | Perry Mesa Wanderings, AZ | | | |
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Perry Mesa Wanderings, AZ
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| Car Camping | 10.00 Miles |
1,000 AEG |
| | Car Camping | 10.00 Miles | 3 Days | | |
| 1,000 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | FOTG invited me to join him for a weekend campout on Perry Mesa for my first ever introduction to this area and its amazing archaeologic treasure of Indian ruins. I drove up early Friday to secure a campsite we had spotted on Google Earth located near FR14 in Hackberry Wash. It had a fairly large juniper that cast a shadow big enough to keep my car in the shade for much of the day, a rare find on the mesa. That first day I took a short hike exploring around camp but didn't find any signs of ancient habitation. Then I drove down the road leading to New Windmill and on to Perry Windmill. There are some rough clearance challenging sections of the road. Both windmills have been converted to solar powered pumps.
FOTG showed up at about 7:30am Saturday morning with Dot and Blanco. That morning we visited a cluster of ruins in the Hackberry Basin a short drive from camp These were located in hills above the eastern side of the mesa. FOTG and dogs had a scary close encounter with 3 large diamondbacks in the tall grass and another one about 20 minutes later. Worried about the dogs, we decided to keep our wanderings after that to old roadbeds as much as possible. In the afternoon we drove to the Squaw Creek Ruin and got within a mile before deciding to walk the rest of the way. There were several large mud puddles in the road left over from the rain about a week before. Cattle were clustered around one of the puddles where we parked and were reluctant to get out of our way. That's when I discovered FOTG had a fear  of open range cattle, especially old cows with long sharp horns. Who knew?
The Squaw Creek Ruin was the largest of the ones we visited that day. Many rooms clustered like a honey comb inside one large rectangular building on the edge of the cliff high above Squaw Creek. The petroglyphs on the cliff face just below the ruins are amazing and well known for the red deer.
On Sunday we hiked on an old roadbed along the mesa out to Pipe Tank between Baby and Perry Tank Canyons. FOTG had been reading about Indian race tracks and knew one was located out there near the tank. There was a little excitement on the way. Two Javelina popped up out of the grass about 50 yds off the trail. Blanco and Dot immediately gave chase despite Lee yelling at them to stop. The Javelina didn't want to leave and one took off after Dot who quickly reversed directions and ran back to FOTG. As we left the scene the Javelina went back to what appeared to be a matting ritual that we had rudely interrupted. FOTG found the race track which was about 100 yds long by 18 yds long and barely visible. If we hadn't known it was there from looking at the satellite image we probably wouldn't have noticed it. Pipe tank was dry with 6 cattle carcasses strewn about.
After that we headed back to our cars wanting to get an early start home before I17 got hit with heavy Sunday afternoon traffic. Unfortunately we got stopped by a grass fire that had closed down the southbound lane. FOTG was about a mile ahead of me and got directed off the highway at the Badger Springs exit. He decided to go north to Camp Verde and go home via HW260 through Payson. I was about to do the same but it took another 45 minutes of being bogged down in the traffic jam before I got to the Badger Springs exit and by then the south bound lanes had been opened so it was clear sailing and I was home in 45 minutes.
Thanks FOTG for finally getting me out to Perry Mesa. It was a good introduction to the area and I'll be back. |
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