SEDONA REDUX
We traveled back to our favorite Sedona area park for a few days to catch up with our friend Kathy Shoemaker who was there with her sister. LoLo Mai Springs Campground is a quiet RV park on Oak Creek about 20 minutes south of town off AZ route 89A. While we were in the area, we decided to explore more of the indigenous ruins tucked in the surrounding canyons.
The ruins at Palatki were occupied by the Sinagua people 1100-1275AD The Sinagua people were farmers and probably cultivated fields in the small box canyon in front of the dwellings. An estimated 40-80 people lived in the village. Unlike most ruins in the area, these ruins are unrestored except for stabilization of window lintels. They are surprisingly well preserved.
It was a short hike through the canyon to the alcoves containing the dwellings. Another short path took us to an alcove filled with pictographs. The pictographs cover a wide date range- indicating that this site was inhabited by people long before the Sinagua arrived. The earliest date from the Paleo period(9000 BC) carrying through to more modern pictographs of the Yavapai and Apache from the 1870's.
Above pictographs are some of the oldest in the alcove. Notice the scratch markings too- these are thought to be from the Paleo period and are actually under some of the paintings.
Below are paintings thought to be from the Sinagua culture- carbon dating put them between 600-1300AD. They were originally white or yellow. The paint made with crushed minerals and animal fat changed color when campfires were built in the alcove.
Below are paintings thought to be from the Sinagua culture- carbon dating put them between 600-1300AD. They were originally white or yellow. The paint made with crushed minerals and animal fat changed color when campfires were built in the alcove.
In 1923 Charles Willard homesteaded in this canyon. He lived for two years in a small room that he built in one of the alcoves while building his ranch house. He planted fruit trees on the land and lived there until 1938. The forest service acquired the land as a heritage site in 1975.
Another day we visited more ancient Arizona hot spots with Kathy and Susan...
Above: Montezuma's Castle and Well National Monuments. Below: Arizona sycamore and fossilized leaf along the trail.
While we were in the area we visited another forest service heritage site. The V bar V Ranch was acquired in 1994 and preserves the largest wall of petroyphs in the Verde Valley. A very knowledgeable volunteer was on site to interpret it's history.
This chimney is what remains from the ranch house
Looking for the vortex along the Bell Pathway
