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| Hiking | 3.50 Miles |
359 AEG |
| | Hiking | 3.50 Miles | 3 Hrs 54 Mns | | 0.90 mph |
| 359 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Another beautiful Winter day in Sedona exploring ancient ruins and rock art.
Everything didn't go exactly as planned, but it was a fun adventure and a great way to spend the day!
The adventure began with the ten mile dirt road drive - which I had heard could be pretty gnarly, but the road was in great shape. I put Yuki in 4-high for awhile just because - but it wasn't necessary ... I actually saw a small car with pretty low clearance that made it all the way to the trailhead (and Honanki Heritage Site just past the trailhead). The drive was gorgeous, with red rock views all around.
Three women in a Jeep with Florida plates were looking at the trailhead sign - I accidentally walked up on one of them as she was peeing, lol - but there was no one else on the trail while I was out there.
I cruised the first .7 mile, then consulted my notes and found the turnoff towards the first goal of the hike - the Wall of the Ancients. A fifteen minute hike on a skinny, but well-defined trail brought me to the spot.
Apparently Loy Butte and Canyon were very sacred places to the Sinagua, and other indigenous people of the area. Today's new-agers are all about the vortex sites and such, but a thousand years ago, Loy Butte was where the action was.
Wall of the Ancients is tucked under an alcove, next to a dry creek bed - and it is at least 100 yards long ... covered in petroglyphs and pictographs. A couple of sources I read stated that there is rock art here from every culture that lived in the area ... I'm certainly no expert, but there were clearly many different styles of art representing many different cultures - so it seems plausible. Very impressive, very spiritual place.
Back on the main trail, I proceeded on and began looking for my second target of the day - the largest set of cliff dwellings up in the red sandstone. (There are several other smaller ones, as well.)
I didn't have an exact route to follow - just some notes and photos saved on my phone. I had a photo of a distinctive large dead tree, which was the landmark to turn off the trail ... I passed by one faint side trail which headed up towards the right area, but after a couple more minutes, I began to doubt finding the tree - the photo I had was over ten years old, and I didn't even know if the tree was still standing ... so I turned back and took the faint path (mistake).
It was very pretty, and easy and pleasant up to a point. As I skirted around the base of the cliffs, looking for the part to start climbing, there was definitely a path and signs of previous use - but no footprints to be seen.
I found what I thought was the beginning of the ascent and started up. It got pretty strenuous pretty quickly. Soon I found myself climbing some of the sketchiest feces I've done in a long time. I didn't take any photos of the really sketchy stuff because I planned to take them on the way back down.
Eventually I popped out on a ledge and saw a pretty clear path going around a corner, where I wanted to be. Once I got around the corner, the path had at least one set of footprints - hooray! I followed the path and the ledges to a spot where I finally got a glimpse of a couple dwelling walls - still 100 feet or more above me - as well as one small cliff dwelling across the canyon, the "mother-in-law's suite".
After looking for the route for awhile, and trying and aborting a couple potential routes, I finally found the correct place to climb. It was a narrow chute that got me up most of the way pretty easily - until I got to the final 20 feet or so. The last little bit involved an awkward bit of climbing that felt a little too risky for me at the moment. If I were a few inches taller, no problem. If I hadn't been solo, no problem. If I wasn't already tired and beat-up from the sketchy route I took and my hands weren't cold from climbing cold rocks in the shady canyon, I would have stacked some rocks and got up there, no problem. But as it was - and believing that I still had to downclimb the way I had gone up - I made the hard decision to bail.
As I retreated from the chute and back down to the path, I happened to find where the mystery set of footprints had come up - and was able to follow the correct (much easier) route back down to the main trail ... I was very glad not to have to go back down the way I had came up! And guess what I saw when the path intersected with the main trail? The landmark tree! If I had just gone two minutes farther up the trail in the beginning, I would have found the easy way up.
After that, it was an easy half hour stroll back to the trailhead.
Even though I failed to reach the cliff dwelling, I was happy with the day - and now that I know the way, I'm sure I can reach them next time ... which will be very soon.
On the drive out I had a Pink Jeep behind me - we take tours out to Honanki, and we provide a site steward to watch over the place. Hopefully next time I will have time to visit there too. |
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