Bluff Utah

Took a trip to Bluff, Utah to hike the Comb Ridge area and view some archaeological sites. This area is loaded with Native American history dating back as far as 300 BC. The people that…

Agua Fria – Unique Sites

Agua Fria is a special place with so many archaeological sites it would take years to explore them all if you went every day. This last trip with friends showed me a couple I’d been…

Hummingbird Point

Along the Gila river Hohokam and Patayan tribes made their homes here for over 500 years. Two different tribes, two different cultures, that spoke different languages, but managed to live together and possibly work together. …

Spur Cross

If you go hiking in Spur Cross in the town of Cave Creek, you may find yourself on a trail that eventually takes you into the Tonto National Forest. Yes, it’s still desert, but it…

Horny Toad Ruins – Agua Fria

Went searching for a specific petroglyph in Agua Fria today but could not find it. Instead, we found a ruin and some very interesting petroglyphs.  We started out in the rain, and ended up with…

Arrastre Creek – Agua Fria

With the slightly cooler weather approaching as summer starts to subside, a long awaited trip to Agua Fria National Monument was already a treat in itself, but this location in particular was very special.  Arrastre…

Sinagua Ruins 2 – Sedona

Another trip to Sedona to find yet another set of Sinagua ruins that we’d heard about. We got lucky with accurate GPS coordinates and were stunned at the size of the ruin and that some…

Gila Bend – Red Rock Canyon

In Gila Bend there is a small, somewhat hidden canyon that contains some red rock similar to Sedona. This lone section of red rock in the desert was used by Native Americans called the Patayan.…

Mindeleff Cavates – Verde Valley

The Mindeleff Cavates in Verde Valley offer a unique look into the Sinagua Indian way of life. Close to the river, but still offering a defensable position on the cliffside. They had a great view…

Gillespie Dam Petroglyph Site

We drove out to Gillespie Dam in Arlington AZ to check out the petroglyph site there. We’d heard there was another good section aside from the main one that gets heavy traffic, so we decided…

Sinagua Ruins – Sedona

I’d been wanting to find these ruins for a long time. There’s not much information on where they are, so I spent quite some time researching the location. I feel like I was lucky finding…

Blue Wash

Got home from workout and was really missing our regular weekend hike so we headed up to Carefree to the Blue Wash trailhead to check out the waterfall. There was a lot of other people…

Red Tank Draw

About an hour North of home near Sedona is the Red Tank Draw. I found this place by watching a few videos, reading other blogs and asking around a little.  There are petroglyphs here from…

Richinbar Mine

An easy 1.5 mile hike will put you off the i17 freeway and into the Agua Fria National Monument at the Richinbar Mine. From 1905 to 1948 the Richinbar Mine was owned by 3 different…

The Great Bend of the Gila River

A fun trip I had a little while back. It’s somewhat remote, and just amazing landscape. Petroglyphs are from 2 different people that lived here, the Hohokam, and the Patayan. The Patayan came later, but…

Verde Valley Caves

The wifey and I took a 1.5 hour down to the Verde Valley to get a little hike in. It’s only a 1 mile round trip hike with a 400 feet climb in elevation. At…

Agua Fria National Monument

Today I went out to Agua Fria National Monument to scout out some old Native American ruins. I didn’t want to stop at the publicized “Pueblo Plata”, I wanted to go deeper in, about 1…

Superior AZ

Met up with a small group of archaeological enthusiasts and explored some areas outside of Superior AZ. The now abandoned city of Pinal of which all that remains are some bricks, rusty metal equipment, a…

Metates in paradise

The wifey and I spend a weekend at a nearby resort to celebrate our anniversary. We were walking through the resort and came across one of their nature trails which looked nice, so we decided…

Sedona Ancient Cliff Dwellings

We spent almost a week in Sedona and while we were there I was really anxious to go find some cliff dwellings that I’d read about in other blogs. These aren’t on any map, there…

Honeybee Canyon – Tucson

On a trip to Tucson we were looking for a quick and easy hike and we found Honeybee Canyon. It’s a 1.5 mile round trip hike through a sandy wash that leads you to a…

Cave Creek Hohokam Ruins

When I started searching for ruins to hike to, I found that google maps can be a great asset when looking for Hohokam “cells” in the mountains. The cells represent the walls of the communities…

Sears Kay Ruins – Phoenix

My wife and I decided to go for a short hike to the Sears Kay Ruins which are about 30 minutes from our home. I hadn’t known about these until recently, and have been wanting…

Palatki Heritage Site – Sedona

We took a trip up to Sedona and visited some ruins left from the Sinagua Indians that are slightly off the beaten trail. The ruins are still managed by the Forest Service, but it’s a…

Honanki Heritage Site – Sedona

After our visit to the Palatki Heratige Site, we drove 30 minutes down some rougher dirt roads to get to the Honanki site. This road is not much worse, except one portion where you drive…

Walnut Canyon – Flagstaff

Walnut Canyon in Flagstaff is a well maintained national monument. The trail descends down a few flights of stairs and takes you on a cliffside path following dwellings made by the Ancestral Puebloans who are…

Wupatki National Monument

Wupatki National Monument is located just Northeast of Flagstaff and contains hundreds of dwellings built by the Sinagua and Ancestral Puebloans. There are about 5 that are open for visitors and among these I found…