As a rule, the Forestry roads around Sedona, AZ are not great and many require a four-wheeled drive vehicle with high clearance. We were pleased to learn the dirt road (7.6 miles long) leading to the Palatki Heritage Site, was passable in our Honda Fit if we took it slow. It took a long time to travel 7.6 miles at 5 miles per hour, but Palatki was worth it.
The cliff dwellings were built between 1100 and 1400 AD by the Sinagua. The ruins were named by Dr. Jesse Walter Fewkes of the Smithsonian. He studied the ruins in 1895 and determined it was the ancestral home of the Hopi people. In the Hopi language Palatki means “Red House.”
The cliff dwellings were built between 1100 and 1400 AD by the Sinagua. The ruins were named by Dr. Jesse Walter Fewkes of the Smithsonian. He studied the ruins in 1895 and determined it was the ancestral home of the Hopi people. In the Hopi language Palatki means “Red House.”
Charles Willard homesteaded the land in 1920. He planted an orchard of 2,000 trees, some of which still stand. It took him two years to build his house, which now serves as the visitors center.
The house has been enlarged with a room added to the front, but the original house is easy to determine. Many pecan trees still survive giving the house plenty of shade.
Artifacts and information line the walls inside the welcome center.
The pueblo wasn't easy to spot from the trail (center of the photo above). The hike up the rocky cliff was not difficult (if you can climb stairs), but it was very controlled by the docents to protect the dwelling. You can get close to the ancient houses but you cannot go inside.
The volunteer docent, Mike, was new at the job. We were his first unsupervised presentation.
Each door header had two wood limbs used to stabilize the opening. Mike explained, archaeologists had removed one of them to carbon date it in a lab. It would not fit when they tried to put it back in place, so they replaced it with a piece of oak. That was the only thing not original at the site.
Mike did a great job and Judy, his spouse manning the visitors center, was very helpful showing us with a better way home. By hanging a left just two miles from the site onto Forest Road 152C we could reduce the rough dirt road travel by 2.5 miles, but increase our overall distance by 11 miles. That was an easy trade-off - the less dirt road, the better.
The south facing cliff dwellings are tucked under an overhang that shelters the ruin from rain and the harsh summer sun. In the winter, the sun floods the pueblo with light and warmth.
When the rains fall, the rock overhang keeps the structure dry. The black streaks down the face of the rock to the sides of the structure become waterfalls when it rains.
Some archaeologists think these pictographs were clan symbols.
There are two separate pueblos at Palatki leading them to believe two clans occupied the site.
I've narrowed this guy down to "Clark's Spiny Lizard." His color changes as the sun angle changes. His body was about 5-6 inches (double that with the tail).
The pointy scales seemed to be a tiny bit iridescent, changing from plain gray to a hint of blue.
A short trail behind the house led to the "Grotto." The gently rising trail afforded some magnificent views.
Harold, the volunteer docent at the grotto, was happy to fill us in on its history and lore. The grotto walls were lined with pictographs and petroglyphs.
Archaeologists believe some of the grotto's pictographs and petroglyphs are 5,000 to 6,000 years old, predating the Sinagua.
Harold was an interesting man. An avid hiker, he once hiked from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon down to the Colorado River, across the river and up to the South Rim AND BACK in one day! It took him 22 hours - he started at midnight and finished at 10 pm that night. Harold was hoping to hike rim-to-rim again at the end of the month (May), but he was concerned recent breathing problems may make it impossible (he appeared to be in his 70s.)
This is believed to be the largest agave pit in the Verde Valley. The agave cactus was a basic food staple. They would roast the agave crowns in a deep pit for two days (in the same manner that we would roast a pig). The center of the crowns would be eaten. They also ate the cooked agave leaves like artichokes or sometimes they boiled the leaves down to make a syrup.
The black pictographs are from algae growing in whatever was used to paint the image. They are over the "Agave Pit" located in the grotto. The pit was used to roast agave cacti.
When Charles Willard homesteaded the land in 1920, he took some of the stones from one of the pueblos (to which access is now denied) to build a shelter in the grotto, complete with water from a spring. He lived in the shelter for two years while he built his house in the valley below (that now serves as the visitors center).
The roof is no longer there. They have stretched wire across the top to allow bats to enter, but nothing else.
The dark stain/shadow on the dirt floor to my left is bat guano. Lovely.
Charles Willard later thought if he could just open the spring up a bit, he could use the water to irrigate things below. You guessed it - after a little TNT, the spring no longer sprung - it was closed permanently.
On the rise above the Charles' makeshift dwelling was his water tank. It was not explained how the spring water/water tank dynamic worked.
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