Day 4: Tuzigoot Sinaguan Ruins

Standing on the roof of Tuzigoot looking north. The light brown near the cliff is the marsh.

Tuzigoot, which is Apache for crooked water is the remains of a Sinaguan pueblo. It also turned out to be my mother’s favorite site on the trip. She liked the idea of seeing an entire village. I liked it because they have reconstructed the roof of the highest part of the structure so you can stand on the top and view the entire area. This might be the viewing loving Coloradoan in me or it might be the fact that the Sinaguans lived on their roofs, and this reconstruction provides a glimpse into that experience.

Looking up at the ruins from the far southern extent of the walkway. There were two gringo women here conducting some faux Indian ritual. The doubt the original inhabitants would have appreciated such misguided beliefs.

This ruin is near Cottonwood, which is 20 miles east of Sedona. We combined this visit with a trip up to Jerome, an old mining village high up Mingus Mountain. Jerome turned out to be such a dud that I won’t bother blogging it. If you go to Tuzigoot, combine it with Palaki and Honaki for a ruins blitzkrieg.

Looking south to the point where I took the previous picture. You can see the green trees and lush farmland of the Verde Valley. It is not difficult to imagine ancient fields covering the entire region surrounding the site.

Tuzigoot sits on a tall ridge that rises 120 feet above the surrounding Verde Valley. About 50 people inhabited the village from 1125 to at least 1400. I would like to see a modern tract home survive that long.

Looking west. Jerome sites on the far hillside. This view is not pristine. In the distance is a copper mine. Most of the ground here is reclaimed from the mine tailings. Who knows what it would have looked like in ancient times.

The Apache name for the site is very apropos. At one point the Verde River actually hooked around the settlement in what is technically called an oxbow. At one point the river broke through the ridge to the south, sending the river away from the settlement. The marsh, which provided both food and reeds to the inhabitants of Tuzigoot managed to survive, fed but a spring.

Interior of the reconstructed tall house. It gives you an idea of the type of construction needed to build multi-story structures.

Day 3: Honanki Pictographs and Cliff Dwelling

Distance: 0.6 mile loop
Elevation: 4,700 – 4,750 ft
Elevation Gain: 50 ft


If you are going to Palatki, a very nice Sinaguan site, be sure to also visit Honanki. The setting is not as pretty in my mind, but the site does have better, if less historically significant, pictographs. The short trail winds through pine and shrub and was very accessible to my mother who has trouble with stairs. In contrast, she did not climb the stairs to Palatki but stayed just below communing with the lizards on the rocks.

Trail to the Honanki site

You can actually see texture and finger marks in this pictograph

Honanki ruins

Honanki is only 4.4 miles beyond Palaki, but I would recommend setting your trip odometer because that distance is deceiving when you are driving slowly on a dirt road. I kept thinking, gosh that rock formation has got to be it etc. It was not. You will recognize the site immediately and don’t be freaked out when you hit the boundary of the Handcock ranch. The route goes right through it.

The bottom row of images was not visible to the naked eye but became visible when I enhanced the colors of the picture.

One of the local tour companies takes folks to this site, so there were at least 4 tour groups on site. They are small and timed themselves pretty well, so it was not terribly intrusive. I think they are helping to fund the restoration of the area, so you can’t bitch too much about that.

The Sinaguans are gone, but the cliff dwellings are far from uninhabited.

Day 3: Palatki Cliff Dwellings and Pictrographs

Distance: 0.6 miles round trip to view the pictographs, 0.6 miles to walk the cliff dwelling loop for total of 1.2 miles.
Elevation: 4,800-4,850 ft
Elevation Gain: 50 ft.

Palatki Pictographs

If you visit one Sinagua site in the Sedona area, make it this one. The site sits beneath an 800 ft red cliff. It dominates the site and looms dramatically in the distance as one approaches it. The site has both pictrographs and a cliff dwellings but only a one-seater bathroom, so plan accordingly. You will make new friends while standing in line.

Rocks from Road 525

Road 525

You do need reservations to visit. Call (928) 282-3854 for information. The site opens at 9:30 AM but when we called at 9:45 AM we still got a recording. It is Forest Service Volunteers who man the phones and the small visitor’s station, so don’t expect the punctuality one would expect from fully pensioned Federal employees. If you do end up leaving a message like we did be sure to tell them what time you are coming because they will get annoyed if you don’t.

Cliffs around Palatki. The alcove on the left is where the pictographs are located.

Pictograph Trail

There are two ways to get to Palatki. The map you get in town advises driving up 89A towards Cottonwood. From there you need to take Forest Road (FR) 525. Note that there is a small brown sign with this number on it about 50 yards before the turn off. This is the only sign so don’t blink. FR 525 is a long dirt road passable by passenger cars as long as you don’t mind a lot of washboard jiggling. The other way to get there is via Sedona’s back roads, Dry Creek and they Boynton Pass. This is by far the more scenic route and it is paved for longer. I put detailed directions of this route at the bottom of the post. I would recommend going that way, it is just prettier.

Rocks along the pictograph trail

Ancient Scratchings

It was very pleasant out at the site. The pictographs are in two alcoves, each with a docent. The views of the area from these picturesque spots made me wish for a Barcalounger. The ancient Sinaguans understood location, location, location. Just to the left of the pictographs was a spring. So not only did they have protection and beauty, they also had running water.

View from the alcove

Giant Agave Bug (Acanthocephala thomasi). This bug drinks the nectar of the Agave plant, the source of Tequilla. Now that is my kind of meal.

The pictographs at this site are very unusual. There are bears, headless figures, and other unusual anthropomorphic figures. There are also large scratches in the wall that I thought was vandalism but turned out to be ancient and authentic. In the local Indian tradition, shamans would scratch at the walls to enter the spirit world. Some of the pictographs are believed to be several thousand years old.

Pictograph

Palatki Ruins

The trip to the cliff dwelling takes you a across an open field, across a creek, and up some steep steps to the wall. The dwelling itself is not overwhelmingly impressive but the setting is pleasing. We saw a Cardinal and a Scrub Jay on the way back to the car, so there is some wildlife in the area.

Palatki Ruins from the side

There is another site nearby, Honanki, which is not as good but since you are already there, you might as well go see it too. Just be prepared for the hordes. One of the local jeep touring companies takes folks to that site. Don't pay money for that trip, however, you can get there easily by yourself.

Directions (the more scenic route): Drive 2.9 miles up Dry Creek Road out of Sedona to the Long Canyon intersection. Stay left and drive another 1.6 miles to the Boynton Canyon intersection. Go left and drive another 4 miles to the intersection with Forest Road 525. 2 miles of this last pitch are on a dirt road. The dirt continues to the site. 0.1 miles from the 525 intersection is a fork. The right fork goes to Palatki, the left to Honanki. It is 1.7 miles on the right fork to the site.

Day 1: Montezuma's Castle

Telephoto view of the castle. With the naked eye, it is far up the cliff face.

This National Monument was one of the first ever created. It happened back in 1902 by the enlightened fiat of President Teddy Roosevelt. There is short (1/3 mile), sycamore shaded trail to view the castle, which is a Sinagua (meaning without water) cliff dwelling high up a rock wall. While not as impressive as Mesa Verde, it is still interesting to see and the most well preserved of the Indian Ruins in the Sedona Area. If you have only one day, however, and don't mind driving on a dirt road, I would recommend visiting Palatki. It is in a much more beautiful setting and also contains very interesting pictographs.

Directions: Take exit 289 off of I-17. Drive past the casino and follow the National Park Service brown signs to the site.

Day 1: Montezuma’s Well

Distance: 0.5 miles
Elevation: 3,800 ft
Elevation gain: 100 feet up stairs to the top and down to the irrigation ditch

Montezuma's Well from far side. The cliff dwelling is in the recess in the upper left.

Montezuma’s Well is a large limestone sinkhole formed when an underground cavern collapsed. 700 years ago its continuous flowing water, up to a million gallons a day, was used to irrigate Sinagua fields. It is 368 feet across and 55 feet deep. There are several cliff dwellings in the walls and lots of moss in the water. This desert oasis is home to some ducks and several creatures that live nowhere else.

The algae in the water feeds a tiny shrimp, which in turn feeds a small water going scorpion as well as some nocturnal leeches that congregate at the bottom of the well and rise to the surface at night to feed. Scorpions? Leeches? Gee, let me just go for a swim…NOT!

More dwellings at the base of the well

The well has a C02 concentration that 600 times higher than normal. This anaerobic environment precludes fish although they live in the nearby stream. We saw a Bald Eagle fly over the well while were there and wondered what it could eat in the area. Perhaps there is sufficient fish in the stream to keep it happy.

A Fence Lizard (Sceloporous sp.).

The early Caucasian explorers, who found the ruins of Sinagua culture including Montezuma’s Well, thought the Indians were Aztec, which is why the site is misnamed.

Ruins on the side of the well

There is a side trail that goes down the outside of the well to where the irrigation ditch started. It was quite a technical feat to dig through the sinkhole to get the water flowing. There are also several pit houses along the upper edge of the well.

Irrigation ditch where it comes out of the base of the well

I would not go way out of my way to see this site, but if you are going to the V-bar-V ranch to see the petroglyphs, you might as well drop by. It is only a few miles up back up county road 618, right before I-17. From the well, you can head the 11 miles to Montezuma's Castle with only a short jog on I-17.

Day 1: V-bar-V Petroglyph Site

Distance: 1.1 loop
Elevation: 3,800 ft
Elevation Gain: none

Petroglyph Wall

In the foothills west of Sedona is the V-bar-V ranch, an archeological site run by the U.S. Forest Service. It contains one of the best Petroglygh sites in Arizona. The glyphs themselves were etched between 1150 and 1400 A.D by the Sinagua (pronounced sin agua or without water in Spanish).

Trail to the petroglyph wall

Desert Paintbrush along the trail

There is a short 0.5 mile trail from the small visitor’s center down to the petroglyph wall. There was docent from the Verde Valley Archeological Society there. She used a laser pointer to discuss the history and significance of the petroglyphs.


It is believed that the glyphs represent a calendar. At various times of the year, sunlight hits certain glyphs, marking times to plant or harvest. The website Sinagua SunWatchers contains a detailed discussion of this theory, so I won’t try and reproduce it here.


The trail to the glyphs follows wide road that borders a creek shaded by dramatic Sycamores. I was very impressed by the number of the glyphs and how close you can get to them. At other sites, I have had to use a telephoto lens. At this site, you could practically touch the glyphs.


One thing you should know is that this site is only open Friday through Monday, so plan accordingly. The glyphs are well worth the trip.

There is a different trail one can take back to the parking lot. It is not as flat but wanders through pleasant desert plants.

Directions to the site: From the Y (intersection of 89A and 179) in Sedona, drive south on highway 179 for 14.7 miles. Go under I-17 . At 17.4 miles, you will come to a 3-way fork in the road. There is a large sign for the V-bar-V heritage site. There is a fee unless you have a National Parks Pass.