Ellen and Lenny are hard core into wandering around Indian Ruins, so we needed an extra trip to get some of it out of our systems.
We left from Lenny's house at 6:30 AM. I-17 to BB road.
9014 South to The Y, thru the gate onto Road 599.
(On this trip we took the time to write down the mileage of the various landmarks as we went, for future reference.)
Road 3164, towards Squaw Creek Ruin? (Not sure of this #)
There's a small ruin on this road, as you approach the main dwelling area. This was probably the "Visitor's Center" for the village, in ancient times.
All visitors please check in here before entering!
Here's a good example of the wall construction in this area; I'm impressed how much effort they put into keeping the side surface of the walls flat. There are also many examples of nice straight right-angled corners, with interlocked blocks.
Onto Squaw Creek Ruins, Hurray!
We took the time to set up the sunshade, to keep us a little cooler while getting organized in the truck hatch area, and while having our lunch snacks. Lenny has experience with sunshades in windy areas, and made sure it was secure.
This was great, we had several hours to wander the ruins, and marvel over the hardiness of people living in this environment.
Ellen found scores of rock drawings we hadn't seen yet, and Lenny found a small arrowhead tip.
Ellen took many pictures, and they're better than mine. Check it out; link to Ellen's pictures.
Ellen pleased with herself, having discovered new Indian art.
Looking off the cliff, in the upstream part of the ruin.
Rock art, viewed from above.
Looking upstream towards the highest part of the ruin.
Here's where I found the arrowhead chip. I think area was the "artisan shop", there is obsidian all over the place. One rock has what I think is a "mortar and pestle" mark in it. Perhaps for dipping arrowheads in poison made from scorpion stingers? (That costs extra.) I should have moved that stupid rusty can; I'll get it next time. 
This rock is near the clearing where we parked, which would be a logical campsite. Modern people do some pottery collecting, and leave it here. We added a few nice pieces.
Ready to head home, quick selfie.
Proceeding along the loop that heads back to 599, there is another viewpoint/possible campsite.
Uneventful trip home, pretty tired, but we have Memorial Day tomorrow to rest. Another great trip!!
Back out to our new favorite area!
Early, early start, from dad's house at 6:00 AM.
I-17 to BB road, East.
South on 9014
We stopped somewhere in here; there was a small ruin to the right of the road. Harry set up his drone, took it aloft and shot some video of the truck driving down the road.
We saw some antelope.
Right at the Y, thru the gate, onto road 599, and on to to the Squaw Creek Ruin. Wow, what a place!!
It's a huge clifftop dwelling, with a clearly defined perimeter wall. It's so close to the edge of the cliff that some of the walls have been undermined by the erosion of the canyon wall, and are tumbling into the canyon.
The area is simply covered with pottery sherds. Dad found an interesting rock. Ellen and Lenny checked out the cliff rock art on the canyon walls below the site. There aren't quite as many petroglyphs here as at the Brooklyn mine site, but they're awesome!
Here's the link to Ellen's pics. (Must See!)
Here's the link to Harry's drone video. (Also must see, it's short.)
Back out to Road 599, thru the gate and back onto Road 14. We turned to the East on Road 610, again in search of the mythical Spanish Fort. Past a windmill, an earthen dam to store water for livestock, and driving over One Million Rocks. Then we saw some cows. They came over to us, hoping for treats. (Sorry, cows.)
Back out to I-17, and it was already turning into a long day. It got longer; a fire near Black Canyon City had disrupted the traffic flow, and it was stop and go for miles. We had lunch at Blank Restaurant at BCC; the food was good but the service was slow. So it ended up being a really long day. No worries, we're tough!
Another great trip!!
Well, it was sort of a trip! This was the first gathering at Nick and Katy's new house, which is a ways out from the main Phoenix area. Here's the pics, they're kinda goofy.
Just a good place to insert a recent cat picture:
William (aka "Goofy"), on the left. Ricky on the right. Everyone should have a least two orange tabbies.
Early start from dad's house. 7 AM?
I-17 to Bloody Basin Road, Road 9014 South.
We stopped at "Stuck Truck Hill", where we were once stranded, stuck in the mud, on a fateful camping many years ago.
Onward to the site we have since nicknamed the "Brooklyn Mine Ruin". This site has a huge amount of of Native-American Petroglyphs, which are drawings that are "pecked" or chiseled into the rock. We had seen and admired these on the camping trip back in the sixties, and Harry had actually gone back in as a young adult with a large camera and taken some pictures.
Ellen and I wandered down and admired the drawings; Harry was flying his drone. Dad stayed back in the shade at the truck. Here's some pics.
Ellen takes a lot of pictures, and many of them are better than mine.
Link to Ellen's pictures.
Link to Harry's drone video.
It's important to include that on all of these early trips we were getting oriented about the area and having lots of discussions about where the various roads go, and trying to match that with Harry's and Dad's memory of having visited what they thought was a Spanish Fort in the general area.
On this trip, we proceeded South on Road 14, in the pursuit of the probably mythical Spanish Fort. We went maybe a half mile or so, the road got too rough, and we turned around.
It turned out Harry was thinking we were on a completely different road, which leads an area he thought was the location of the Fort. It turns out that we weren't on the road that he was thinking of, and since then the thinking has also been changed about the possible location of said Fort. If you think that is confusing, you should come along on a trip and hear some of the actual discussion. Then you would be even more confused.
That was about enough exploration for the day, so we headed back North towards the BB road, and stopped at what has since been named "Blood Corral". It's a minor cattle corral that straddles road 9014, about a mile south of the BB road. Dad scratched his arm on some barbed wire while looking around for souvenir "date nails", that can sometimes be found in old railroad ties used in construction. We're all set for minor first aid, and we cleaned him up and slapped on some band-aids.
On home towards Phoenix; we stopped at Outback on I-17 and Dunlap for a well-deserved late lunch.
Another great trip!
Link to Ellen's pictures.
Link to Harry's drone video.
For future reference, here's some mileages:
It's about 80 miles from East or South Phoenix to the Bloody Basin Road turnoff. (Bloody Basin is actually some distance East from the area we're visiting lately, so that's just the name of the road.)
Proceeding East on BB road, here are the landmarks.
Power Line: 3.8
Creek Crossing: 4.7
Bathroom: 5.8
Pueblo La Plata Turnoff: 8.1
Kiosk, Rd. 9014 Turnoff: 10.4
Reset Odometer, proceeding South on Rd. 9014
Blood Corral: 1
Monument/Forest Border: 2.3
Turnoff to Road 611: 2.5
Stuck Truck Ridge: 3.1
Turnoff to Road 599 (The Y): 4.2
(continuing on 599)
Turnoff to Road 610: 4.6
Road to Squaw Creek?: 6.6
(I think this is 3164)
Squaw Creek Village: 7.2
