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| Sierra Ancha Cliff Dwelling Exploration, AZ | |
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| | Sierra Ancha Cliff Dwelling Exploration, AZ | | | |
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Sierra Ancha Cliff Dwelling Exploration, AZ
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| Hiking | 13.98 Miles |
3,453 AEG |
| | Hiking | 13.98 Miles | 9 Hrs 4 Mns | | 1.89 mph |
| 3,453 ft AEG | 1 Hour 41 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | I met ishamod at 5:30AM, and we left Phoenix for the Sierra Anchas. Our goal today was to reach a cliff dwelling in a hard-to-reach cave that I spotted last May [ triplog ] . That hike was mostly a scouting trip to confirm I had the correct location, but I ran out of time to reach the cave that day. I'd hoped to return soon after that visit to take advantage of the brush clearing I'd done, but 5+ months passed before things worked out and I could finally recruit someone to join me. Reaching the ruins today was just a question of how slow the rough off-trail portion would be and whether we'd have enough daylight to reach it.
It was in the mid-40s when we started, and there was a lot of nice fall color in the leaves. We didn't take any breaks for the first 6+ miles, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the trails weren't nearly as overgrown as I'd expected, which helped us keep a good pace. We saw several signs of bears, including scat and paw prints.
Like last time, I carried loppers, which were very useful when we got to the off-trail portion. I hit a dead-end in a brush-choked chute back in May, so I tried a slightly different approach that didn't initially look passable, but we started carefully scrambling down a steep slope covered in loose rock, thick brush, and lots of prickly pear, trying to avoid knocking rocks loose down onto each other.
After a slow descent, we were relatively even with the cave, though it wasn't yet visible. We followed the base of the canyon wall along several ledges, dodging sharp brush, crawling under branches, using the loppers to clear a path when possible, and pausing several times to remove cactus spines from hands, legs, and arms. We rounded one corner, still didn't see the cave, then eventually rounded another corner and finally saw it tucked back in the shadows. We traversed one more ledge and climbed the final slope up to the dwelling, which is one of the nicest examples I've seen in the Sierra Anchas.
It's a four-level dwelling built into a sloped cave, with partial roofs intact on the first and third levels. The wall of the front room is missing, and it looked like some of the roof beams had some charring, like there'd been a fire. That room has a side doorway that's still intact. A partially-buried log forms a makeshift ladder up to the second level, which has two support beams but no roof remaining. A narrow, well-preserved doorway opens to the third level, with a well-intact roof covering half of that level. A slope on the right side of that room leads to a fourth level at the back of the cave with a low wall across it. That room may have been used for storage, with what appeared to be rock shelves wedged into the narrow back wall.
The dwelling had a lot of miniature corn cobs, part of a bone (leftover from an ancient Salado meal?), and some of the largest pot sherds I've seen, including some nice curved pieces that were once large sections of a bowl or vessel, a large red piece, and several ridged/corrugated sherds. Like most of the Sierra Ancha dwellings, finger marks were visible in the mortar.
Archeologists had taken a core sample from one of the roof beams in the front room, and another beam in the third-floor roof looked like it had a core sample hole that had been filled with putty (I've read that the dates on this site were in the mid-1200s to mid-1300s). One of the rocks in the third-level wall had an inscription that said, "M.W. Kilheffer 10/3/27". The back wall of the first-level room had a square-shaped (storage?) space with some pottery and corn cobs inside, and the views looking out the front of the cave were impressive.
[ youtube video ]
I'd expected to be impressed with what we found, and the site exceeded expectations. Having now been there, I'm even more impressed that the Salado managed to haul the materials and build the dwelling in such a precarious place. We spent a lot of time exploring and taking pictures but had to tear ourselves away, knowing we had a slow hike path back to the trail and then a long hike out. It took some time, but going up the steep slope was easier than going down, fortunately. The hike out felt a little long...we covered decent mileage today, and the off-trail portion was mentally draining, constantly watching our footing and dodging obstacles.
We had a nice surprise on the way out when we came across a group of four or five coatis climbing in the trees--that was the first time I'd seen any in the Sierra Anchas. Other than one person near the trailhead, we didn't see anyone all day. We finished just before dark...perfect timing for a great day. I hadn't seen ishamod in more than six months, so it was great catching up with him, and this was an especially exciting, enjoyable day after an uneventful summer of hiking for me, consisting mostly of weekday morning hikes at South Mountain before work. I returned home today covered in cuts, scratches, scrapes, and cactus spines, some lodged in my arm through four layers of clothing. But it was worth it--lots of fun finally seeing the dwelling up close, and this completed the 162/163/164 trifecta  . |
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