Saturday, April 16, 2011

Indian Ruins near Richmond Basin

Just an amazing day with Mike! We hiked to these ancient Indian Ruins near Globe. Big shade trees at the bottom of the hike, but we had to trek through cactus & rocks to get to the amazing glory at the top of this mountain...at one point, when I say rocks, I mean ROCKS too! We hiked around the back side of this and scaled a rock face to access the back door of an ancient village...I nearly gave up a few times, but Mike's encouraging words (and supportive strength) made sure we got to the top safely. Coming down was much easier. We hiked down the sandy front of the mountain. Here are some of the amazing things we saw:
saw this birds nest on our way upOnce we got near the top, you can see rooms built into the side of the mountain. Some of the plaster remains that held these rocks together.And something still lives here...we found a safe nesting place for a little animal.Our first sight as we came up to the top... Wow! What a view.There are many rooms.There were several places throughout the ruins where water basins (or maybe grinding matates) were carved into the rock.We found several pieces of pottery, put them together and took a photo - and then left them there. It makes you wonder how much of the original treasure remains and how much has been disturbed with time, errosion, and curious-sticky-fingers?I just had to get a photo of this. You can see that there is still a thick layer of plaster holding rocks together in some places. I can just imagine how grand it must have been - I am sure the rocks we see stacked today were hidden by thick insulated plaster. There are even areas that still have the burn-marks from ancient fire pits. So amazing!This is a photo of the outer wall of the village. It looks like it surrounded the entire top of this hill at one point. Imagine carrying all those rocks!And this is the view looking back on the ruins as we headed down (the safe side) of the mountian.So happy we got to go explore this place. We stayed at the top for over an hour just enjoying the handiwork and the amazing views. I can only imagine how serene this must have been on a night with a full moon and a coyote howling in the distance.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are these ruins above the Nugget Mine?

Becca said...

You know, I am not sure - but it very well could be :)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for answering so quickly Becca. I was up in the area yesterday hiking around the Nugget Wash and struck out in locating these ruins. I pastored a church in Globe for many years and we did a lot of quading around Roosevelt Lake and the Pinals. Two months ago I took a group up to one of my favorite Indian ruin locations and discovered someone had been in there and dug it up. Made us all sick. Would you be willing to help me locate these ruins you were at. To keep this information off the internet would you consider emailing me or messaging me on facebook?

Anonymous said...

Found them! Hiked up the Mesa last weekend at the crack of dawn. They are awesome but some ones been digging here also, not as bad but we did discovered a couple holes. As you mentioned it is a hike and I think it’s too much to take church groups to. I’ll just add these to my list for me and my wife to explore when it gets cooler.