Dead Horse, Dead Cow...that's one similarity anyhow

Deadhorse Sunset

We opt for a traditional campground, Deadhorse State Park, the name a nice companion to our dead cow hike. Hot showers, a picnic table for the stove, and easy (or so we think) access to three ruins.

The cow was freshly dead, but the horse died in the 1940s.  At the time, a family from Minnesota looking for an AZ ranch to purchase opted for the one where they had seen a dead horse.  When the family donated the ranch to AZ, they asked that the name remain.

Deadhorse is at capacity, but we are allowed to take Q into the tent loop. The loop is filled with families and the giggles of kids set free.

The first ruin we visit is Tuzigoot the cute name remains because archaeologists asked Apache people to name the site - and liked the sound of the answer. The original Apache word is Tu zighoot (TWO-see-WHOODT) means something like crooked river.

The Yavapai people called it Aha-gahlahkvah meaning crooked water. The ruins sit riding on a ridge above the bend in the river. The view from the top is the entire Verde Valley.It is easy to see why this location was perfect.

At the top we meet Ranger Brian who fills in details of the story of the discovery and partial restoration of the site. He is past retirement age, so we discuss aging and travel. He carries concern for retired people who by necessity live the nomadic life, taking work as they find it and camping along the way. We feel gratitude for having the choice.

We return to camp and find that we can see Tuzigoot. It is at the center of the photo below as a mere dot.  May be it isn't too surprising that we didn't notice before our visit there?

Tuzigoot magnified

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The other two sites of this part of the Road to Ruins Tour are supposed to be easy to find. The ranger who takes our walking tour reservation for Palatki tells us to ignore the GPS oracle because she will misguide.


We opt to visit Honanki in the morning in order to arrive in plenty of time for our 2:15 guided tour of Palatki.

The map and ranger’s instructions tell us “when you come to a fork in the road, take it” (- Thx, Yogi). There are two forks!
The lower fork has the same number (followed by a small letter 'c').  The upper fork is the one that the ranger instructions and other minimalistic maps indicate for our awareness.  We briefly speculate that the maps and road identification (lack thereof) may be part of a business model for the pink jeep tours out of Sedona.  A 3 hour pink jeep tour of Honanki is available for $95/adult.  Otherwise free.

Our cost: taking the first fork left brings you here:

Sign: PASSENGER CARS NOT RECOMMENDED

As we drive these rugged back roads we find many primitive, dispersed camping options.  Good info for our next trip to AZ.

The sign we discover after we pass it and look back tells us that we've been driving the Outlaw Trail. It is in the parking area for the short hike to the Honanki Ruins.

At the ranger kiosk we obtain our hiking permits and hear the ranger ask with a "please" that we not interrupt or interfere with the pink jeep official tours.

What we didn't say: Who removed all the road signs on the way here?

Honanki Cliff Dwellings

Current resident of Honanki

Now the drive to Palatki should be easy. We set off to find the other fork. We forget the ranger’s warning to disregard GPS and end up circling back to Honanki - even as she tells us that we have arrived at Palatki. Time races ahead as we travel against the deadline for the 2:15 guided tour. The road isn’t as rough as the Outlaw Trail. Alex and Q manage to get us there with minutes to spare.

Ruti is a volunteer ranger from Montana. She fills in some of the knowledge gaps for us while also quizzing us to see what we already know. A natural teacher, she asks if we know the name of this grinding stone. Says Alex, “Rhymes with Tecate” so that i can say “metate”. Such a comedy team. We are also able to supply the three sisters crops: corn, beans, and squash, but her question about another crop stymies us. It is cotton.  She recommends the museum in Casa Grande to see the weaving exhibit.

She reminds us that these Sinaguan people likely didn’t just disappear. They were friendly with their Pueblo neighbors and probably intermarried and moved as water and weather became less helpful. My reading of Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel reminds me that some may have made another sort of exit.







The second part of the Palatki hiking tour takes us to petroglyphs that range in age from archaic, ancient, and just very old.  Volunteer Ranger Robert points out various forms and colors and speculated meanings.

He reminds us that the costume designer for Star Wars took inspiration for Princess Leah’s hair from the Navajo young woman illustrated in this petroglyph.

After-the-fact application of D-Stretch reveals more than the original photos (or our eyeballs) could.

Moon, human, animals

D-stretch reveals figures otherwise lost in smoke

Before we leave Cottonwood we revisit the best source (yet found) of ginger pigs, and fulfill the sub-theme of the Road-to-Ruins Tour: the search for the most delicious ginger pigs north of the border.

It is a somewhat inconspicuous store front, Romeros Panaderia.  It sits on a small street angled off the main drag through town.  It is all-together too easily missed if you're driving south out of town. 304 N. 15th St. in Cottonwood, AZ.

The pan dulce is beautiful, as are the smiles.

Devil's Chasm, Dead Cow

Looking west towards Picacho Peak

Something motivates us to drive all the way back to our Link Road semi-wilderness to camp in warmth. (It is yesterday's snowy exploration of Kenish-Ba.) 

We opt for 3 days off from exploring in order to contemplate  the growing moon.  There is a small hill just south of our camp.  

On the night of the full moon, we climb to the top of the hill and settle in to watch sunset and moon rise.

Looking east

The photos aren't terrific, but can you sense the awe of moon rise over the desert? Q nicely provides shelter, but insists that we spend most of our waking hours outdoors.

Well rested and a bit more browned by sunshine, we set off following directions for four hikes that all originate within a few miles of each other in the Sierra Ancha Wilderness.  Our first night's camp puts us within range.  Across the lake we see the mountains that hold the Tonto National Monument cliff dwellings where we stood last week.

Looking across the valley towards Tonto Natl Monument

Cherry Creek ruins

The first day we misidentify our nondescript dirt road and hike about 10 miles before realizing that we won’t get to the cliff dwellings this way. We return to Quiggy and discover (with a little help from an ATV group) that our road is just a bit further north. (A day later we find a nearly bleached out sign identifying road #38.)  

As we are entering the canyon where the dwellings are a mere 500 feet away, we meet Becky and Ann from Sedona who confirm the location of the ruins. 

Along the canyon creek bed we find one big bone and a bit of hide. Who had dinner here?












The next day as we begin our hike up Devils Chasm we find a recently deceased cow. She may have wandered into this steep canyon, became too thirsty to resist trying to get to the water - and slipped. As we study her position, we’re hopeful that she hit her head hard enough not to be aware.   I take no photos of the dead cow.  "Thank you" i hear you say.  She keeps us from camping in the otherwise beautiful campground at the base of the hike.

View from forest road to cliff dwellings

Previous hikers left climbing ropes and straps - for which we are grateful. 

(See more photos on FB.)

The hike up Devils Chasm is a mere 1.5 miles but the climb is 2400 feet of elevation. There are terrific photos and description at http://www.arizonaruins.com/sierra_ancha/devils_chasm.html

We meet a father-son duo as they are descending. They are far muddier and tired than are we.  "Use the ropes even if you don't trust them.  It is the only way to get up the scree and into the ruins."

The 3 mile round trip 4800 foot climb and descent leave us muddy - and with aching muscles, bruises, and scrapes; but very happy and well maybe just a little smug.

Tonto, Besh-Ba-Gowah, and Kenish-Ba

 From low desert we head for the Superstition Mountains and a drive that will take us to another cliff dwelling. We camp in an organized campground and remark over the many people who stop to spark conversation. The deep canyon is beautiful - and that beauty amplified by setting sun. We see another quail family. They seem calmly accepting of campers - equipment and people.

In the morning we climb to visit the loweer cliff dwellings at Tonto National Monument. The photo doesn't show the climb up the hillside, but though it is a bit steep, it takes a zig-zag often enough, and benches are available to stop to either breathe or admire the view (or both).

These walls remain sturdy.  The view from the cliff is beautiful.  It is easy to imagine people adopting this as home, though at the time before the river was dammed, the vast valley below was likely full of other settlements and cultivation watered by irrigation canals.

The ranger on duty at the top of the hike points out hand prints on the wall where residents may have made repairs.  She points out shells that are an indication of how far distant the trade routes reached.

The view from lower cliff dwelling.

After descending the mountain on the nicely paved pathway, we drive past Roosevelt Dam and on towards Globe and Besh-Ba-Gowan. 

Besh-Ba Gowah is an archeological site more than 200 years old built by Salado culture.  An outstanding feature of the ruins is a large central plaza.  

The name translates from Apache as "a place of metal".  Mining was a big part of the economy in Globe, AZ, and surrounding mountains.

Reconstructed interior

Our overnight camp at the scarcely occupied Jones Wash  (along highway 60) is peaceful - though chilly.  As we're enjoying our morning coffee, Alex describes a pretty and brightly colored little bird.  His description of markings and behavior make it easy to identify even as we're sure that we know it before looking it up in The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America.  Just as we found during last year's travel in the southwest, Sibley's description matches our own observations.  Who's clever?  Oh, yes, it's Sibley.

We drive the Salt River Canyon to see Kenish-Ba Ruins on the Apache reservation. The views of the canyon are stunningly beautiful though the colors are somewhat muted by the overcast sky.  

A permit is required to visit the Kenish-Ba site.  We visit Fort Apache on the reservation to watch the required video - and find it compelling and interesting.  Not a bad requirement.  

It is chilly as we leave the car in the parking area at the end of a two-track road.  Before we walk to the ruins, it begins to snow.  (Disjointed blog-calendar: written in Feb, but not posted until 3 months later.)

Trails cross at Sofia's: Montreal to the Casbah, Painted Rocks to Picacho Mtns

 We return to I-8 to travel a little further east to Painted Rock National Monument. There we find petroglyphs easily accessible by a short trail.  It a small boulder pile, but the campground is  huge - and each site is generously well separated from its neighbors.

Gila River, I-8, railroad, and traditional trade route trail. Gila Bend is named for the river bend - nice logic.

Our next site is elusive, but on the way trying to find the Gatlin site, we discover a Gila Bend neighborhood diner called Sofia’s. There are plenty of cars outside to indicate good food inside. Happy full people can be seen leaving. It is Mexican food - something for which we have a taste.

As we are waiting in line for a table, Alex says “hi” to a trio of guys who are likely not-from-here. We discuss a few travel adventures and then discover that they are traveling for work.

“What kind of work do you do?” “We’re a band.” They are on their way to San Diego to play the Casbah. They are a Montreal band, Busty and the Bass. They offer us a CD and Alex graciously hands over $$. They say they will be playing in Ann Arbor again. They were recently there playing at the Blind Pig.

The Gaitln site is closed to visitors today so we travel on to find one that is large and easily accessed, Casa Grande.  This big house was still in use in the 1400s.  It was built by the ancestors of the O'odham, Hopi, and Zuni people.  In many of the sites we visit, the historical account labels the ancestors "Hohokam" but at Case Grande we learn that name is not in the language of any of the descendants.  The remaining walls are part of a much larger system of buildings and canals.

Our campsite destination is BLM land that is on both sides of the Link Road near Picacho Peak. Appearance evokes wild desert densely congregated with a tremendous variety of cacti and Palo Verde trees. Occasional road noise reminds us that we aren’t very far from civilization. This area too is part of the vast Gila River basin. It is an area that once grew the three sisters: beans, squash, and corn - with irrigation canals to carry water from then generous Gila River. The Gila once flowed from New Mexico mountains near the Gila Cliff Dwellings - west across Arizona, when Arizona was the land of the Hohokam.

Our quest here is another petroglyph site, one rarely seen because it means driving miles of sandy-bumpy dirt roads and stopping to open and close barbed wire fences. We enjoy the scramble to find the petroglyphs and then enjoy the desert view from the top of the boulder pile.