Mill City Ruins, the Minneapolis Locks, and St. Anthony Falls

Headed south.  We left Duluth and went to the Twin Cities.  We wanted to go to where Minneapolis was born, so we visited the Mill Ruins Park.  The park preserves the ruins of several flour mills on the south bank of the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis.  The ruins are impressive to see, especially with the stone arch bridge and portions of the Minneapolis skyline visible.  

The city sprang up around St. Anthony falls, a large waterfall on the Mississippi River.  The millers knew they could use the power generated by the falling water to power their grinding wheels.  Due to the the mills, the transportation the river offers, and the proximity to large fields of grain, Minneapolis quickly rose to prominence in the field of cereal grain processing.  Numerous well known companies began there, from General Mills, Malt-o-meal, Pillsbury, and others.

Adjacent to the park is a lock used to allow ships and barges up above St Anthony Falls.  We took the opportunity of taking a tour.  The lock is controlled by the Army Corps of Engineers, but is currently not operating.  It is indefinitely closed to prevent the spread of asian carp.

While touring the lock, we learned about the great St Anthony Falls collapse.  There is a stretch of hard bedrock that extends under the Mississippi River, forming St Anthony Falls.  It's only about 1000 feet wide.  In 1869, a tunnel that was bored through the bedrock to create more power collapsed, and nearly collapsed the waterfall into a gnarly rapid.  It took several years to stabilize the waterfall, and now the falls are completely encased in concrete to prevent the possibility of collapse.  If they would have collapsed, Minneapolis would have never grown up to be the big city it is.

Nearest City: Minneapolis, MN
Location: N° W°
Time Needed: 2 hours
Difficulty: easy
Kid Friendly: more geared to big kids
Additional Info:

Fall Leaves in the West Fork of Oak Creek

On Columbus Day we woke up, enjoyed breakfast, then headed out to go hike the West Fork of Oak Creek. We stopped by there a few days earlier and went and visited Pumphouse Wash instead because of the crowds.  We thought that a Monday would be a better option, since getting there early would mean we could park at the trailhead. 

We arrived about 8 and found the parking lot about 1/4 full.  We paid our $10 parking fee (or $2 for walk-ins), parked, then loaded up.   A bridge crossed Oak Creek, and we could see a few trout swimming in the pools below.  Thick blackberry brambles along the bank would make for a tasty treat earlier in the year, but now they were all bare. At the mouth of the canyon, we found the ruins of an old lodge.  I can't remember much about the lodge other then it being just about the first building in Oak Creek Canyon.

We explored the nearby chicken coops and "cave", a room cut into the sandstone cliff.  Then we ducked into the canyon.

The trail goes a little over 3 miles, and 13 stream crossings up the West Fork of Oak Creek.  We brought sandals and water shoes but didn't need them because the stream was shallow enough to hop across and keep dry feet. 

Most of the way we found the canyon pretty quiet.  It's a narrow canyon, but it never really gets to be as narrow as a true slot canyon is.  The water and the sandstone sure are a pretty combination though!

Does this remind anyone of another famous picture spot?  The log propped up against the overhanging canyon wall reminded me of the numerous pictures I've seen of "The Subway" in Zion National Park.

There aren't any waterfalls in Oak Creek Canyon, but a there's a few spots, like this one, where the stream has cut into the sandstone bedrock, forming small plunge pools. 

More sandstone, water, and fall leaves.   We were a little bit early for peak color.

At the end of the trail, there's a large ledge overlooking the creek.  It's a very popular spot to stop, eat a snack or lunch, then turn around and hike back down the trail.  People aren't the only ones that like the spot.  This crow was entertaining the crowds when I got there.  He evidently has learned that there is food where there are people sitting down. 

The maples were starting to change color, but were far from being ideal.  It was still a beautiful little hike. 

Nearest City: Sedona, AZ
Location: N° W°
Time Needed: 1/2 day
Difficulty: easy-moderate
Kid Friendly: yes
Additional Info: watch out for poison ivy.  It's there in abundance, but none of the signs at the trailhead warn you about it.

Feeling Rushed at Honanki

We were wrapping up our visit to Palatki about 3:00 when we mentioned that we were going to drive to Honanki next.  The tour guide said that we should hurry because Honanki closes at 4 PM.  It's about 7 miles between the two, on dirt roads the whole way.  We quickly loaded up, drove past the ranger waiting to close the gate behind us at Palatki, and down the road to Honanki.  We got to the fork in the road to Honanki, turned west, and I did my best to drive fast, but not too fast.  The dirt road to Honanki is in worse shape then the dirt road was to Palatki.  I slowed way down at several spots to pick my way through.  If you're driving a sedan, you can make it if you go slow and pick your approaches.  Low clearance vehicles could bottom out a place or two if they don't pick the right approach.  Driver be warned. 

Full Moon Pictograph

We pulled into the Honanki parking area, then looked frantically for our National Parks Pass.  It had gotten lost somewhere between Palatki and Honanki.  Because both sites are in the Red Rocks area, you need a Red Rocks Pass or equivalent to visit them.  I couldn't find the pass anywhere.  I still haven't found it a month later!   I ran over to the little booth at the entrance and the volunteer told me just to go anyway as they were closing in half an hour.  So we got the kids out and hustled down the path to the Honanki Ruins. 

I really liked the Honanki Ruins.  There are some really cool petroglyphs and pictographs.  A couple people from California remarked that this one looked like a guy carrying a surfboard. 

The ruins at Honanki are in an alcove at the base of a west-facing cliff.  The ruins are much larger of those at Palatki.  They are roped off here too, but I didn't feel like someone was watching over my shoulder here.  The ruins and rock art are intermingled, with several attractive pictographs being located above the ruins.  I wish I would have had more time here at Honanki!  We quickly toured the area, took a few pictures, then walked the 1/4 mile back to our car so they could lock up.  If I only had time for one visit between Palatki and Honanki, I'd definitely recommend visiting Honanki.  The ruins are better, there's awesome rock art, and they don't hold your hand the entire visit. 

Nearest City: Sedona AZ
Location: N° W°
Time Needed: 1-2 hours
Difficulty: moderately easy
Kid Friendly: yes
Additional Info: Coconino National Forest Honanki Heritage Site  Site is open from 9:30- 4:00

A Supervised Visit to the Palatki Ruins

We called and made reservations to the Palatki Ruin a few miles southeast of Sedona.  It's dirt roads driving out there, but the roads are in generally good condition.  Good enough condition that a sedan would have no trouble getting there.  The ruins were just far enough out though that we were beginning to question if we were in the right place or not then we saw a sign telling us they were a little further.  We drove into the parking lot and took the last available parking space.  A bunch of side-by-side ATV's had claimed about half of the parking stalls.  The rest of the places were claimed by vehicles with an assortment of license plates.  Palatki attracts people from all over the place.  The site requests that you call ahead and reserve a tour time because the parking area is limited, and having steady visitation throughout the day is a lot easier for them to handle then the peak and valley variation that occurs otherwise. 

Palatki has a cliff dwelling, as well as a large collection of pictographs.  The first trail we chose was to the cliff dwelling.  We walked for about 1/4 mile to the dwelling, where a tour guide was waiting.  The ruins are fenced off from visitors, so we listened to the short presentation, took a few pictures, then turned around to go back to the visitor center. 

The sky was quite hazy from the Slide Fire up Oak Creek Canyon, but the red rock was still quite pretty.  We enjoyed the hike across the desert and spied a peach tree growing out of a small wash.

Back at the visitor center, we took another trail that took us west to the pictograph panels.  The pictographs are located in a large alcove, and contain pictographs from many different peoples who lived in the area.

Some of the pictographs are layered, with newer pictographs painted over the top of older pictographs.  This  small handprint was by itself.

You can see many different pictographs in this picture if you look.  The deer is newer, while the "ladder" in black is an older pictograph.  

I thought the best pictographs were on the east end of the alcove where there were black figures on a blackened wall.  The ranger said that these pictographs were likely white at one time, but the floor of the alcove right below them was used as an agave roasting pit.  The smoke from the fires was caught by the binding matrix in the pictographs, turning them back.  It's a pretty neat place.  The area just past the black figures was roped off to protect nesting bats that live in the cliff.  Palatki is a nice place to visit, but expect crowds, as well as the near constant supervision of park rangers and volunteers while you're there.  Be sure to call ahead for reservations.

Nearest City: Sedona, AZ
Location: N° W°
Time Needed: 2-3 hours
Difficulty: moderately easy
Kid Friendly: yes
Additional Info: Coconino National Forest Palatki Heritage Site  Call ahead for reservations 928-282-3854.  Open from 9 AM to 3 PM. The last tour starts about 2 though.

The Ruins of Sacred Mountain

We woke up on the Saturday before Memorial Day knowing that we were running out of time on our trip.  We ate breakfast, then loaded up to hike Sacred Mountain, an off-the-radar hike to some ruins.  We had learned a little bit about Sacred Mountain when we visited Montezuma's Well, and later when we were at the V-Bar-V we obtained directions from a tour guide who offered them. 

We started out about 1/4 mile south of the V-Bar-V, at what is now a pull out after the side road was closed.  We followed the old road to a fence line, crossed the fence, then turned south on the faint trail on the other side.  Soon we came to a hikers gate in the fence, where the turns are tight enough to allow hikers through but not livestock.  We crossed through the gate and the trail immediately improved.  We then followed the trail as it looped around to the south side of the mesa then to the top where the ruins are.

As we climbed the mesa, we saw numerous pottery shards along the trail.  Some were decorated like this one is, while others were plain.   Once we got to the top, we started finding a whole lot more pat shards all over the ground.  Sacred Mountain has never been excavated and has an abundance of pottery and artifacts all over the place.  If you visit, please don't take anything home with you other than the memories and your pictures!

We wandered the top of the mesa, making one fantastic discovery after another.  A basalt mano was just laying on the ground.  It was good to see it.  I've seen a lot more metates and grinding holes while hiking then I have manos.  I think the larger metates are more difficult to haul away, so they get left behind by the hobby collectors.  Again, please leave everything you find here!

The walls of the pueblo have all fallen down.  We saw very many rock piles, which were at one time walls of the pueblo.  The oral tradition is that this is where the people who lived at Montezuma's Well came from.  Is this also where the petroglyph creators of the V-Bar-V petroglyphs lived?  Perhaps, but nobody really knows. 

This wall was the tallest wall we found still standing on top of the mesa.  It was about 3 1/2 feet tall, and had a "collection platter" on top where past visitors had left a collection of pottery shards they had picked up.  Please don't make collections!  If you see a pretty piece and pick it up, please put it back where you grabbed it from!

Here's a close up of the collection plate.  Cool?  Yes.  But not nearly as cool as seeing the same pieces where they were in the dirt. 

We wandered the mesa top, from one rock pile to the next, and at points in between.  It was literally like wandering an outdoor museum, but it was better then that because I could find what was there in the museum.  After finding something cool, we'd call the others over to come and look, and then we'd all resume our wandering and searching.  After wandering and looking, we started descending down from the mesa.  One last pottery shard caught my eye, so I bent over and picked up this two-toned beauty.  After taking a picture, I set it back down and stood up for the hike back to the car.  Hikes like this one are bound to leave a smile on your face.  It still makes me smile as I think of it. 

Nearest City: Sedona, AZ, Camp Verde, AZ
Location: N° W°
Time Needed: 2-3 hours
Difficulty: moderate
Kid Friendly: yes, with supervision
Additional Info:

Tuzigoot National Monument

Our next stop was at Tuzigoot National Monument, near Cottonwood, AZ.  I have very divergent thoughts about Tuzigoot.  Tuzigoot was the last really big excavation of a pueblo in Arizona, and was excavated in the 1930's.  It's amazing to see all of the rooms built on top of the hill.  Many of the walls have been rebuilt from where they once fell. 

Tuzigoot also has an outstanding collection of pots excavated from the pueblo.  Where we saw lots of pottery shards other places,  we didn't see any on the ground here.  Many of the pots had been broken into pieces and had been reassembled piece by piece.  You can see where some of the pieces are still missing.  Maybe they were ground into dust over the years, or  a piece was taken by visitors, or maybe just mis-filed during the excavation.  These large pots were used to store water.

Here's a collection of smaller pots.  These were created in several different locations, and were brought here through trading.  The different colors and painting styles help to determine pretty closely where each pot was created. 

I found the patterns on the inside of this pot interesting.  The swirl and zigzag motif seems to be very common and I've seen variations of it in petroglyphs at Petrified Forest National Park here in Arizona and pictographs at Hueco Tanks in Texas to name a few locations.   The museum at Tuzigoot is quite amazing.  It is easily the best museum we saw on our trip.  But therein lies the dilemma. 

The ruins are scrubbed bare.  Sterile.  Impressive walls, but nothing else.  No personality, no little artifacts on the ground where you could point at it and say "Look right there at what I found!".  Tuzigoot, which means Crooked River in Apache, doesn't even let you go inside of the rooms of the ruin.  We don't know what the site's original name was to those who built it.  They have moved on and left, leaving those who came after to name it after the sharp bend in the river below. 

I mentioned earlier that I'm really conflicted about Tuzigoot.  I don't have problems with the ruins being excavated, as they were abandoned and it's basically just sifting through a thousand year old trashpile.  But I do have problems with the ruins being excavated.  I enjoy wandering and discovering places myself. Not seeing any artifacts or signs of the people that built the pueblo as I wandered around Tuzigoot really sterilized the place for me.  The walls  partially rebuilt walls remain behind, but there were no petroglyphs or pictographs or arrowheads or pottery shards left behind, reminding me at a micro level that someone once called this home.  There is an outstanding museum at Tuzigoot, quite frankly, the best museum we saw on our Northern Arizona trip, but how much of what was dug up is now filed away in a warehouse, only to be looked at, if at all, by researchers? 

Nearest City: Cottonwood, AZ or Clarkdale, AZ
Location: N° W°
Time Needed: 2 hours
Difficulty: easy
Kid Friendly: yes
Additional Info: National Park Service Tuzigoot Website

Montezuma's Well

I really enjoyed our stop at Montezuma's Well.  We stopped at the picnic area first to let the kids run around and blow off some energy.  While we were there, we found some oyster shells on the ground, so we asked one of the employees who said they were Chinese Star Oysters that were brought in by the Chinese workers at the mines in Jerome.  Apparently they are pretty common in the area now.  There was a small garden plot at the back of the picnic area that was a demonstration on Hopi gardening.  There was corn, melons, squash, cotton, and several other plants growing in the garden.  A short walk up the hill from the picnic area shows part of a prehistoric irrigation canal.  The canal was part of a much larger network of canals built by the Sinaguan people around 1000 years ago.  The canal is lined with travertine deposits, deposited from the high mineral content of the water over time, effectively making the canal walls nearly waterproof. 

Over at Montezuma's Well, there's a large spring in a depression, surrounded by several ruins built into the cliffs.  With a flow rate of nearly 1.5 million gallons a day, it's a very dependable, but somewhat treacherous water source.  The spring water is high in arsenic, so drinking too much of it could give someone serious health problems and possible death.  The nearby waters of Beaver Creek don't have that problem, and probably tasted a whole lot better because of a lower mineral content. 

The ruins were built by the Sinaguans, and consist of  several rooms build into the low cliff overhang, as well as a pueblo on top of the rim.  A sign indicated that the Sinaguans didn't originate here, but came from Sacred Mesa several miles away to the east. 

Here's a better picture of the well.  See if you can identify any cliff dwellings around the pool.  The pool looked to be about an acre in size.  It naturally moderates its level through several cracks and outlets around or near the surface of the pond.  The pond is too highly mineralized to support fish, but contains snails, leaches, waterbugs, and a few other small creatures, some of which are only found here at Montezuma's Well.  We walked down the inner trail into the crater to the outlet and a small ruin there.  It's definitely pretty here.

After walking down the inner trail, we climbed back up, passed the pueblo ruins, then took the trail on the outside of the collapsed travertine dome to see the outlet from Montezuma's Well.  Along the path we saw several leaf fossils in the travertine.

The outlet of the well is channeled into a travertine lined irrigation canal.  It's an incredibly beautiful spot.  One of the locals we met and talked to said that the outlet of Montezuma's Well is the most beautiful spot in the Verde Valley.  Right at the crack the water flows from is a gigantic sycamore tree that is incredibly huge.  I have to agree with the local- the outlet of Montezuma's Well is one amazing place. 

Nearest City: Camp Verde, AZ
Location: N° W°
Time Needed: 1-2 hours
Difficulty: easy
Kid Friendly: yes
Additional Info: NPS website for Montezuma Well

Hanging out with the Tour Groups at Montezuma's Castle

We visited Montezuma's Castle on a Wednesday morning.  This little yellow bird watched as we ate breakfast at the picnic tables. The variety of birds here in Arizona is awesome.  After breakfast we went inside the visitor center, looked around the small museum, then continued out back to look at Montezuma's Castle, just as a few tour busses pulled up. 

Montezuma's Castle is south facing in a cliff just above Beaver Creek.  It looks pretty cool, but that's about all you can do there is look.  The National Park Service stopped giving tours of the ruin quite a few years ago, so now you walk about 1/10th of a mile down a wide concrete path from the visitor center, read a few of the signs and take a few pictures, then wander back.  It was quite crowded, and seems to be a popular spot for tour busses to visit.  We joined the throngs of traveling snowbirds, Japanese tourists, and college students to take the customary picture and move along.  Yes, the ruin looks cool, but to me it was more of curiosity to view from afar than it was a place to experience, and therein lies the disappointment for me.  I actually enjoyed the smaller subset of the monument, Montezuma's Well, located a few miles northeast, much better.

Just past the famous castle, there is a more weathered ruin of a pueblo built against the cliff face. In one of the crevices of the cliff, bees had built a nest.  We could see them buzzing, as well as some of the honeycomb hanging from the top.  They were far enough away that a simple sign alerted us to their presence, but far enough away that we didn't bother them nor they us. 

The pueblo was lived in about the same time the castle was, but it held more people at the Pueblo.  The white rocks blend in with the cliff really well, but walls are visible as you look.  The Sinaguans who lived here had fields in the flood plain of Beaver Creek and were part of a larger network throughout the Verde Valley.  We saw numerous other sites where they lived as we looked around as we drove through the area.  Cliff dwellings in overhangs, small pueblo ruins on top of hills, and other sites, such as petroglyphs are extensive throughout the region. 

Nearest City: Camp Verde, AZ
Location: N° W°
Time Needed: 1 hour
Difficulty: very easy
Kid Friendly: yes (but they might get bored too)
Additional Info: Montezuma Castle National Monument Website

Walnut Canyon National Monument

We arrived at Walnut Canyon mid-morning on a Wednesday and the first think I noticed was the number of cars in the parking lot.  It wasn't overcrowded by any means, but it there were definitely more people at Walnut Canyon then there were at any of our previous stops since we left the Grand Canyon.  We took our time and made pancakes in the picnic area, then loaded up and went inside the visitor center/museum.  The museum is rather small, essentially consisting of one room with exhibits around the walls.  After stamping the kids National Parks Passports, we stepped outside for the descent into Walnut Canyon.

The main attraction at Walnut Canyon is cliff dwellings, ruins left behind from the Sinagua people who lived here about 1000 years ago.  Although there are ruins scattered along both sides of the canyon for quite a ways, the only ruins that you are allowed to approach and look at up close are ones located around "the island", a raised meander that juts up from the floor of Walnut Canyon.  Of the ruins that the path goes by, about half of them are open for you to go inside, while the best preserved of them are closed by the Park Service.   For example, the better preserved ruin in the picture above is closed to entry, but the ruin below with significant walls broken is open to entry. 

While we were there, a work crew was repairing part of the trail, so we were not able to do the loop, but instead had to turn around about 100 feet from where the trail breaks into two.  We hiked back, then did the long climb back up to the visitor center.  Back on the rim, we went and saw the pueblo and pithouse ruins that are east of the visitor center.  Overall, I'd say Walnut Canyon is the second best National Monument in the Flagstaff area for ruins.  It's more restrictive than Wupatki, and the ruins are not as fun to explore.  It's still worth a visit.

Nearest City: Flagstaff, AZ
Location: N° W°
Time Needed: 3 hours
Difficulty: Moderate- the stairs down into and back out of the canyon are the only way to the ruins
Kid Friendly: Yes
Additional Info: