Wednesday, November 15, 2017 (Boondocking Site, Sedona, AZ)

Wednesday was another sightseeing day! We all piled into the car just before 9:30 and headed along the forestry road towards the colourful cliffs of Red Canyon and the Palatki Heritage Site. In the Hopi language Palatki means 'red house'.

You can see a person standing at The Grotto...

We arrived at the site just before 10:00 and after parking (and marvelling at the beauty of surrounding red rock), we started on the trail towards the Visitor Centre. The website says to call to reserve space for the tour as space is limited to ten visitors at a time, however, Ray was unable to get through when he tried calling (so we decided to just go). We were met by Tom, who said that there was room for 4 on the next tour at 10:15...perfect, what luck!

The Palatki site has a set of ancient cliff dwellings in the red sandstone cliffs, built from 1100 to 1400 CE by the Sinagua people of the Ancient Pueblo Peoples. The cliff dwellings were built under south-facing overhangs for shelter and winter sun. The Sinagua people planted crops and made pottery in the area. Palatki and Honanki, another nearby archaeological site, had the largest cliff dwellings in the Red Rock formation area from 1150 CE to 1300 CE.

Our group (of 7 once Deb and I come out of the visitor centre) waiting with Tom, our guide...

Once we were all ready, we followed Tom onto the trail. He stopped a number of places giving us lots of information. The wall of rocks used to be the barn.

In the 1920s, Charles Willard discovered the abandoned site and built his homestead nearby. He planted an orchard of 2,000 trees (some of which still stand on the site) and put in a vegetable garden. His home is now the visitor’s center. While the house was being built, Willard lived in one of the stone dwellings just beyond the house.

The dark marks on the cliff side is from waterfalls...can you imagine how beautiful that must be?

From here we can begin to see the cliff dwelling ruins behind the trees...

Then we came to the more difficult section of the trail up to the ruins...

Palatki consists of two separate pueblos, suggesting two family or kin groups may have lived here, one in each pueblo. 

The valley below for growing crops...

Panoramic view. Steve likes the Lightroom editing program for stitching photos together...

Our tour guide Tom on the left. Archaeologists think there were a total of 16 rooms...

Looking up above the dwelling ruins...

Those holes would have had wooden poles inserted into them perhaps for flooring or something else...

The circular shield-like pictographs above the eastern pueblo have been interpreted by some archaeologists as being a kin or clan symbol.

Panoramic view showing the cliff above the dwelling ruins...

Steve now see's an Apes face in the cliff but nobody noticed it on our hike...too funny!

Steve hamming it up as we head back down the rocky trail...thanks for the picture, Ray!

We're now on the trail that goes to the Grotto alcove sheltering the petroglyphs and pictographs from every native culture to ever occupy the Verde Valley....

Steve also said he now see's an image in the shaded underside of this rock...

Arriving at the Grotto...

We were met by another park volunteer who would tell us about the pictographs and petroglyphs. Unfortunately, I can't remember her name. Steve wondered why this spot wasn't used for cliff dwellings and she said a waterfall cascades into here during heavy rains...

This area is covered in petroglyphs/pictographs from throughout the ages including some from the Apaches...

Mountains with perhaps the sun or moon above...

Bottom right they thought would be an Elk...

A waterfall coming out of the mountains. There are apparently 7 of them here and a previous visitor pointed out to a tour guide that there are 7 shown on the pictograph...

Our tour guide said archaeologists think these show the animals spirit leaving. Steve said he thinks they had gas! Thinking about it now Steve thinks maybe they depict Skunks? We've seen lots of dead ones on the highway coming here! Who really knows what they were blogging about back then. LOL!

A Desert Tortoise on the right...

Apparently the idea for Princess Leia's hairstyle on Star Wars came from pictographs like the one on the bottom left...interesting!

These pictographs turned black from all of their fires in this spot...

Since we were the first tour group continuing around to check out the stone cabin, it was suggested we tap our walking sticks on rocks as we go...just to let the snakes know we were coming...

The farmer lived here for 2 years while he built his house which is now the Park Visitor Centre...

Looks cozy...

Looks like an Owl sitting up there...

Time to head back to the car...

Now we are on our way to Palatki's sister site, Honanki Heritage Site...

These Pink Jeep Tour vehicles come in from Sedona...

Campsite next to the road...

Honanki site is much bigger. At the time it was inhabited, from 1100 AD to 1300 AD, it was the largest settlement in Red Rock Country. This entire period of Sinaqua culture was named after Honanki. One of the beams recovered from the ruins was tree-ring dated to 1270 AD. Same as with Palatki, Honanki is surrounded by pictographs and petroglyphs from different time periods, some from 2000 BC. Every culture that inhabited the site has left their mark, without disturbing any of the drawings from previous tenants. Honanki was last inhabited between 1400 and 1875, by Yavapai and Apache people, who also contributed their pictographs.

After signing in at the gate, we were given a little information about the trail from the lady manning entry and sent on our way. It seems if you want an actual tour of these ruins, you must go on a "Pink Jeep Tours" tour...

The cliff dwelling ruins just above the trees come into view from here...

 A close up...

These structures would normally have a smooth mud surface but over time the elements expose the rocks

Another clan symbol...

Looking above the cliff dwellings...

Me peeking around the corner...

The Honanki ruins were much bigger but for me something was lost not having a tour guide like we did at Palatki. Pretty darned incredible, just the same though! We saw several other OHV trails on the way there and you can ride your ATV's to either of these sites. Too bad mine is out of commission! The road was rough especially the one to Honanki.

We were back  home around 1:30ish...time to relax for a bit before starting the party...it's Ray's birthday today. We started with champagne...

Steve grilling the pork skewers Deb made...

It was an appetizer party. Deb also made this wonderful baked brie and phyllo pastry with cranberries and bacon. My contribution was a veggie plate and I was going to serve chicken wings...but everyone was too full...so they will be served another time. Lots of food and adult beverages were consumed!

All while sitting around the campfire...

The end to another awesome day...Happy Birthday, Ray...so glad we were able to celebrate with you!