What better way to spend a day off than by getting out of the house and going to see something new? Well, for us, it was new, but in reality, what we were going to see was something a few thousand years old.
Many people know Sedona, Arizona for the beautiful red rock landscape, but what many don't realize is that there is a rich native American culture that is almost as old as the rocks themselves. In fact, there are many native American ruins in the Sedona area, a shadow of a people that once called the land home. One of the ruins that C and I visited before he started school this August was called Palatki, meaning "Red house," in the Hopi language. Palatki is the site of the largest cliff dwellings between AD 1150 - 1350 built by the Sinagua people. To visit the ruins, we had to make an appointment for a tour. We called that day and were able to get a spot with no problems.
Our trip to Palatki took us 30 minutes outside of Sedona on a dirt road in the middle of the Sedona outback. The path wasn't extremely rugged, but it definitely made me wish we had a 4 wheel drive vehicle to traverse the landscape with. We were surrounded by large junipers and towering red rock vistas.
We arrived at the visitor's center and were greeted by friendly park rangers. They instructed us on how to access the cliff dwellings and gave us wooden walking sticks for hiking up the mountain to the area. The hike was only one quarter of a mile and was not bad at all with a baby; we had a hiking backpack for Ella, and she rode in it very contentedly.
Making our way up to the cliff dwelling site was pretty mind boggling thinking about how the Sinagua people would frequently climb the mountain every day, most likely multiple times a day, to travel between their shelter in the cliffs and their farms in the valley below. (The picture above shows the valley where they grew their crops thousands of years ago, taken from below the alcove where the pictographs were located). I couldn't imagine myself having to go on a hike (not that I would mind) to access every resource I need like water and plants for food or for building materials. We are pretty lucky that we can turn on a faucet and have our water so easy!
The tour at the cliff dwelling site was very interesting. We were not allowed to enter the cliff dwellings to prevent damage to the site, but could see from the outside how they were made with bricks chiseled from the sage stone mountains. There was another site towards the west of the picture below of cliff dwellings, but we were not able to access that site due to severe deterioration (aka, some parts of the ruins had collapsed making it extremely dangerous to enter).
Our next stop was to the site of a ceremonial alcove in the mountains towards the northwest of the visitor's center (about a half mile from the cliff dwellings). There, there were many pictographs (some of which dated 6,000 years ago, way before the time of the Sinaguans), of lines, squiggles, animals, and one that resembled Princess Lea from Star Wars (see below left). In reality, the pictograph was most likely created by someone from the Hopi tribe as the figure has hair that is like that of Hopi women (see below right of a picture of a Hopi girl). Apparently, the area had been inhabited by not only the Sinagua people, but also people from other tribes as well throughout a period of hundreds of years.
All throughout the alcove on the cliff walls were hundreds of these lines that had been etched into the stone. We discovered that they were a result of someone taking drugs (which would have been ceremonial to the user) and trying to translate what they saw in their world that they were transported while they were under the influence. All I can say is, don't do drugs, kids.
One of the newest additions to the alcove area was a shelter built by a man named Charles Willard. In the 1920's, at the age of 65 after his beloved wife passed away, Willard discovered the area and constructed a stone shelter there as well as started an orchard. In the picture below, you can see how he used the cliff face as a natural wall to build upon, basically using the same technique as the Sinaguans to build their cliff dwellings. Likewise, in the top left part of the picture, you can kind of see a concrete box on top of a mound of stones; this is what Willard used to collect rain water to use for drinking, cooking, and bathing. Pretty ingenious.
After we had thoroughly explored Willard's shelter and the alcove of pictographs, we gave ourselves a little tour of the visitor's center museum and took off. We had also wanted to make it to Palatki's sister site that was located 4 miles away called Honanki, but it was too late and they were closed by that time. However, we had a great time at the Palatki Heritage Site! It was interesting to learn about the native American culture in the area and to get a feel for what it must have been like to live in Sedona thousands of years ago. We loved our experience there, and will most likely return to visit Honanki in the near future!
All throughout the alcove on the cliff walls were hundreds of these lines that had been etched into the stone. We discovered that they were a result of someone taking drugs (which would have been ceremonial to the user) and trying to translate what they saw in their world that they were transported while they were under the influence. All I can say is, don't do drugs, kids.
One of the newest additions to the alcove area was a shelter built by a man named Charles Willard. In the 1920's, at the age of 65 after his beloved wife passed away, Willard discovered the area and constructed a stone shelter there as well as started an orchard. In the picture below, you can see how he used the cliff face as a natural wall to build upon, basically using the same technique as the Sinaguans to build their cliff dwellings. Likewise, in the top left part of the picture, you can kind of see a concrete box on top of a mound of stones; this is what Willard used to collect rain water to use for drinking, cooking, and bathing. Pretty ingenious.
After we had thoroughly explored Willard's shelter and the alcove of pictographs, we gave ourselves a little tour of the visitor's center museum and took off. We had also wanted to make it to Palatki's sister site that was located 4 miles away called Honanki, but it was too late and they were closed by that time. However, we had a great time at the Palatki Heritage Site! It was interesting to learn about the native American culture in the area and to get a feel for what it must have been like to live in Sedona thousands of years ago. We loved our experience there, and will most likely return to visit Honanki in the near future!
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