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| Hiking | 15.40 Miles |
866 AEG |
| | Hiking | 15.40 Miles | 6 Hrs 31 Mns | | 2.36 mph |
| 866 ft AEG | | 10 LBS Pack | | |
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| partners | | Bloody Basin road was soft and muddy awhile after entering the mesa, until we reached a puddle large enough and muddy enough that we reassessed our options. We decided to park 3.5 miles from Brooklyn Basin and hike it. Not long after starting, 2 jeeps came through the puddle just behind us but got no further before bailing for something else, but we marched on. Travel was easier off the road so we spent most of the day in soft, prairie-like grassland, with only the occasional cactus to sidestep. Ran across a decent amount of trash and packed some of it out, particularly shotgun shells which I found 5 or 6.
Our plan was to hike south on top of the mesa down to Squaw Creek, then drop down to the ravine and come back north, hitting Brooklyn Basin on the way out. Nice scenery and pleasant hiking, uneventful other than a tree holding a large nest 3-4 feet across. Many of the ruins sites in the area have multiple buildings, and the size is impressive. An aerial view would be best since the ruins are all sprawling with many many rooms, but the walls are unfortunately mostly low rubble. We began to see metates and occasional petroglyphs as we approached Squaw. There were also countless pottery sherds everywhere, all around.
It seems any ruin in the area almost certainly has incredible petroglyphs just over the edge of the cliff its on. I forgot to look for the red deer though I had marked the location, and got caught up in all the awesome petroglyphs we were finding on the east cliff side. Minimal scrambling involved, but some unfortunate cactus locations and bushes with terrible thorns. You could spend all day finding petroglyphs along the canyon wall. I eventually stopped taking pictures of every single one because there were just so many, particularly deer. Most interesting finds were one panel of LOTS of deer, a panel with what appeared to be a duck and a lot of pecked dots, and some of the anthromorphs. Also one that looks X-rated but could be natural rock coloring...
We could see Squaw Creek down below running pretty heavy, coupled with the time we decided to forego dropping down into the canyon and headed back the way we came. We had only a little time upon reaching Brooklyn Basin, one of us explored the ruins and the other poked around the cliffside to find some last petroglyphs. I also made it up the hill near Brooklyn Basin with white rocks on top, but didn't have the necessary time to explore it properly and just found a few glyphs and continued on.
Very successful day except I forgot the sunscreen in the truck and got burned a little |
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