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 are no signs and no trails to lead you there. You just have to kind of find your way around and hope you can find them before you run out of steam.
Fortunately these were one of the easier ones to find. After we left the trail it took about an hour to scale the side of the hill to reach them. Crawling under trees, over and around cacti, and maneuvering across slick rock we were almost there. The ruins are not visible until you reach them which makes it that much harder. At the base of the ledge they were on, I had one more tree to get by, and while crawling under I almost put my hand on a rattlesnake. That was a little unnerving, but he warned me, then went on his own way.
Finally inside the ruin there was the most beautiful view of the canyon. This is not one that’s a long hike to reach and so there have been plenty of modern day visitors who found pottery sherds and left them for others to find. This dwelling has been partially rebuilt, but still it’s amazing to think that 1000 (700 to 1400) years ago someone lived here, or used it as a lookout post.
