Escapees May-June 2024

past many of the rooms and marveled at the vast structure. This pueblo was the largest in a 50-mile radius, and some of its rooms were used as living quarters and others for food storage. A large circular Kiva room stands out. Kivas are thought to have been used for ceremonial and political purposes. Further down the scenic drive, there are four smaller neighboring pueblos: Wukoki, Nalakihu, Citadel and Lomaki. These are much less visited sites, and our imagina tions took fl ight as we roamed around the crumbling walls. Gazing at the distant San Francisco Peaks and the plateau surround ing us, we tried to imagine what life was like for the Sinagua people as they lived out their lives in this arid and barren place. Tonto National Monument High above sparkling blue Roosevelt Lake, in central Arizona, two sets of cliff dwellings were built into large caves on a mountain side around 1300 AD. Back then, the river, originally known by its Spanish name, “Rio Salado,” hadn’t yet been dammed to form Roosevelt Lake. Instead, it fl owed across thevalley fl oor below the caves, providing water for farming along its banks and fl ood planes. Archaeologists refer to the builders of these ancient cliff dwellings as the Salado people. The river’s name was Americanized from Rio Salado to Salt River. The Lower Cliff Dwelling is a 20-room structure that fi lls a cave measuring 40 feet high by 85 feet long and 48 feet deep. Today, it is accessed by a half-mile paved path from the Visitors Center that snakes uphill past towering saguaro cacti and lush Sonoran Desert vegetation. The strenuous uphill walk rewarded us with breathtaking views at the top. When the ruinswere fi rst discovered by settlers in the late 1800s, they were virtually untouched, as if the residents who’d abandoned the site 400 years earlier had just moved out. An account on the National Park Service website by Angeline Mitchell about her horseback ride and scramble on foot up the mountain to explore the ruins, in 1880, reveals her thrill at being one of the fi rst people to see this site after the ancients had left. Today, although the ruins have been bolstered and preserved, some of the walls

“The Upper Cli ff Dwelling is better preserved and is accessible by a three-mile roundtrip trail that is open only to group tours…”

EMILY AND MARK FAGAN #99408 traveled full-time by RV and sailboat for 13 years and now enjoy RVing part-time. Emily has written over 225 articles for various RV and sailing magazines, and the Fagans’ photography has appeared on mag azine covers, in commercial wall calendars and, at national park overlooks and even in museums! Follow their blog at roadslesstraveled.us. These ancient ruins are all impressive sites that are well worth a visit. Although they aren’t as extensive as the bigger and more famous ruins at Mesa Verde National Park and Chaco Canyon National Historic Site, we found each of these sites immensely interesting, and we hope you do, too! and most of the roofs have disintegrated. At the back of the cave, there is black soot on the walls where cooking fi res once burned. Although the Salt River would have been within view of the dwelling, the people found fresh water in nearby mountain springs. Living such an upstairs/downstairs kind of life, we were relieved to know they didn’t have to haul their water from the river up a mountainside! The Upper Cliff Dwelling is better preserved and is accessible by a three-mile roundtrip trail that is open only to group tours guided by National Park Service volunteers. This wonderful tour gave us a detailed and moving glimpse of the daily lives of the Salado people. Once inside the ruin walls, we found some ceilings were still intact. The space was very tight! We could still see handprints left by the builders when they pressed the stones into the mortar on the walls, and a thumb-sized 700-year-old corn cob was stuck in the mortar of one wall. The tour guide also showed us a “metate” grinding stone archaeologists had found in the ruin. Her enthusiasm for her volunteer workcamping job was palpable as she described assisting the archaeologists with cataloging the pottery found in the area.

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May/June 2024 ESCAPEES Magazine