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| Agua Fria Rosalie-Hackberry Ruins, AZ | |
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| | Agua Fria Rosalie-Hackberry Ruins, AZ | | | |
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Agua Fria Rosalie-Hackberry Ruins, AZ
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| Hiking | 10.42 Miles |
1,517 AEG |
| | Hiking | 10.42 Miles | 7 Hrs 28 Mns | | 1.98 mph |
| 1,517 ft AEG | 2 Hrs 12 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | It had been almost three years since my last visit to Agua Fria, and I'd been meaning to get back for a long time. I've visited three of the "seven cities" on Perry Mesa, and the original plan today was to add the Squaw Creek and Brooklyn ruins to the list, but the road conditions forced a change of plans. The roads were in good shape until we were ~ three miles from our planned parking spot, but apparently Agua Fria got more rain last night than expected. FR 14 started to get very muddy, and we were picking up a lot of thick mud on the tires and sliding around, so we pulled over and decided to hike to the Rosalie Mine/Hackberry Wash ruins instead.
We started near the corral at the intersection of FR 36 and FR 14, and even walking the road required some extra effort--after a few steps, our boots were caked with mud, and we eventually gave up trying to scrape it off since the mud immediately returned after a few steps. The ground was wet enough that avoiding the road and walking in the grass just meant getting mud and grass stuck to our boots  . Luckily, the hiking was a lot easier in areas where the ground was sandier and had less clay.
Around two miles in, we left the roads and started visiting the various ruins sites. We visited a total of six sites in that general area, never traveling more than about a half mile between one and the next. The first five varied somewhat in size but were similar in that they were all multi-room complexes, were all located next to trees, and were all badly overgrown with catclaw. The majority of the pottery was scattered around the perimeters of the sites, but we didn't see much inside the rooms. Most of the walls weren't in great shape, though there were a few more pronounced stacks in some spots.
The sixth site we visited, partway up a hill, was by far the most impressive. The complex had more rooms than any of the previous sites, including a second smaller complex a little higher up the hill. There were more standing walls, and we saw more large pot sherds at this one [ youtube video ] . From there, we continued up a rocky approach to the top of a mesa and worked our way south along a ridgeline.
I went up to Peak 4919 and was surprised to find a summit register on top, placed by Bob Moore in 2021...I recognized his name from a few registers in the Cave Creek area. There were a several walls on the slopes just off the peak and a few pieces of pottery scattered around, so that may have been some sort of lookout. Down below the peak, there was a circular room, though it was hard to tell if that was modern stacking or an old ruin. [ youtube video ]
On the way back, we took a different route down the mesa and came across a long (100'+) wall on the hillside, along with some pottery and the first petroglyphs we'd seen today [ youtube video ] . We also took a different route back to our parking spot, we came across a seventh ruin sites that was similar to sites 1-5. The road had dried out nicely by the time we returned, so we didn't have to deal with muddy boots, and a jeep passed us on the way back--the first people we'd seen all day. We didn't see many petroglyphs, no metates, and we didn't come across any particularly unique artifacts, but it was good to be back in Agua Fria...hopefully it's not three more years before I return this time. |
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