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| | | Living on the edge SRC Wilderness, AZ | | | |
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Living on the edge SRC Wilderness, AZ
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| Hiking | 3.00 Miles |
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| | Hiking | 3.00 Miles | 3 Hrs 30 Mns | | 1.00 mph |
| 30 Mns Break | | | |
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| no linked trail guides |
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| no partners | | A few weeks ago I was here in the SA hiking yet another cliff dwelling and made friends with a group of hunters along the way. They were kind enough to enlighten me about a hilltop ruin across an unnamed canyon from the eastern edge of Black Mesa. I took a photo of the pin on their GAIA GPS map for further investigation. Once back in the land of cell service I satellite mapped the area around the pin and sure enough clear as day there was a large rectangular structure on the edge of a mesa between Chalk creek and Black Mesa directly on the edge of the SRC wilderness. I searched HAZ every way I could think of and came up empty handed about this mysterious new dwelling and decided I would plot my own course.
Coincidentally, as the crow flys, it appeared to be only a half mile from lower coon creek ruin. Trip planning commenced and here I am on day 3 of camping in the SA. Yesterday I rode the short distance down to the very end of FS1075 and parked at the western edge of SRCW to begin my hike to this unnamed Mesa ruin. Depending on your vehicle of choice I would park at the gate before the abrupt rocky descent that ends with a roll off the edge of a giant bolder sticking out of the road but if you have a capable mode of transportation then feel free to follow my tracks down to the river bed. If you are fond of your paint job I would recommend parking here. If you’re a fan of desert pin stripes than continue following me through the river bed around the small bend between the ever so close vegetation to the nice grassy clearing where the road ends and a small game trail leads into chalk creek.
Once you enter chalk creek there are some fun displays of geology at work you can follow along on the eastern edge while staring up at the unknown mesa you are about to ascend. After a very short walk through the natural cement and sand the creek bed narrows into some tall grass for a few pases and then the game trail will lead you up and to the right to a large tank which you will continue passed to the crest of the hillside. Once up there you can see the small canyon stream bed that is lined with more of natures cement. This stream bed will lead you west a very short 5 minutes then up and around the bend to the south or to your left whichever you prefer. After making the turn it is up to you where you would like to make your ascent to your left to the top of the 3200 foot Mesa. I found a very good path of least resistance by starting up on tiny game trails after passing under the rock outcropping at the top. The vegetation isn’t too demonic mostly just tall grass and for the SA it is a cake walk other than the steepness. If you brave the ever thickening vegetation in the canyon up to the saddle you will stumble upon a few remaining troughs from mining/ranching days and then emerge at a large tank in between the ruin you were heading to and the giant overgrown ruin I found on Google satellite but haven’t mentioned to you yet 
If you opted for scaling the hillside and continue walking south, you will soon see the tops of the walls if you look close at the right edge of the hilltop in the boulder field. Then if you look off to your left/east you can get a clear view of lower coon creek from your binoculars. Once at the ruin you can glance off to the southwest at the 3741 hilltop where the small black Mesa ruin sits. The walk from the gate on FS1075 would probably be 1:15 minutes the walk from where I parked at the end of the road took me 1 hour.
The ruin is quite large and built intricately into a cliff edge/boulder field. The remaining walls are impressive some a bit taller than my 5’9” and one with an opening of a window. There is evidence of modern day humans such as the fence line running along the hillside below, gatherings of pot sherds, and one rusted tin can. I began finding pottery about 20 yards north of the ruin on my approach. There isn’t an over abundance of it but enough to let you know they were there.
I will explain a lot of the directions in my photos but it is a very simple to find easy to get to location with magnificent views!!! I discovered that with my binoculars I can actually see the ruin from the cattle guard on top of the hill on 203 just before descending down to FS1075. And had I thought about it, I would have definitely been able to spot it from lower coon creek the other day.
As for the ruin laying in the saddle, it is very large, I would venture to say at least 2 dozen rooms but possibly more. It is so thick with vegetation it was hard to get any good photos but I’ll post a few that I took along with one of a small shrine someone built to pay homage to a red pot sherd 
Both of these ruins are intriguing to me because I can’t find them on HAZ and their location is definitely directly tied to lower coon creek and black Mesa. The old archeological reports I’ve read may have them noted but the maps they provide are hard to decipher.
Happy hiking !!! |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
…. Definitely worth it all for the views and magnificent rock formations surrounding the ruins!!! How they managed to stack the stones on those steep hillsides is beyond me. 
