Arizona Winter Loop | Saturday, February 4, 2023
After spending the last seven days in Arizona it was unfortunately time to start heading home. But first, we would be spending this morning visiting a couple ruins and rock art sites in the Red Rock Wilderness near Sedona. This would be our very first time in the Sedona area, and even though we knew it would be a little more popular and crowded than we would like we were a little interested to see what this area was all about. Before we had left home on this trip I had booked the earliest tour at the Palatki Heritage Site for Saturday morning, and even though the site was closed at the time due to muddy roads, I hoped that it would be open by the time we got there, and thankfully it was! Since the tour did not start until 9:30am, we were able to sleep in a little later than usual before leaving our hotel in Camp Verde and making our way to the base of Secret Mountain.
Welcome to the Red Rock Country of Arizona.
Once the gate was opened we entered the Palatki Heritage Site and passed this sign along the road.
This was our view of Red Canyon as we waited for the tour to begin near the small Visitor Center.
It was only a short walk over to the Palatki Ruins.
These large and faded pictographs high above the ruins were pretty cool.
After leaving the ruins we hiked over to The Grotto to see all the rock art found there. There was quite a bit, but much of it was faded and hard to see.
Next, we continued west along the cliffs to the large Agave Roasting Pit Alcove.
There were plenty more interesting pictographs found around this area, too.
Once our tour had concluded we drove over to the Honanki Heritage Site so we could go on the self-guided tour to see the ruins and rock art found there.
Before we started our long drive home, we visited a couple lesser-known pictograph panels and then drove through Sedona and up Oak Creek Canyon to Flagstaff. It was a nice way to end our week in Arizona and we look forward to returning!
Thanks for taking us along on your Arizona journey with your excellent photography and dialogue! The downside is that it makes us long for the desert as winter continues in Alberta.