Indian Ruins off Loy Canyon Trail

We hiked to Indian ruins in Loy Canyon on 13 January 2010 and again on 2 October 2010. To avoid duplication, I have combined the two hikes into one report. From Cottonwood, we traveled north on Hwy 89A, turned left onto Forest Road 525 at the Sedona Water Treatment facility (just past mile marker 364). We drove for about 10.1 miles (according to my GPS) on FR 525 before turning left into the trailhead parking area for the Loy Canyon Trail (34°55'56.29"N; 111°55'30.15"W). The parking area is at the edge of Hancock Ranch and the trailhead is located directly across the road. Following FR 525 from Hwy 89A is pretty straightforward; just stay on 525 and don’t be fooled into turning onto 525C or 525D.

At first, the trail follows along the edge of Hancock Ranch on the way up Loy Canyon. About 0.70 miles from the trailhead, a faint trail leads off to the right (at 34°56'23.20"N; 111°55'28.53"W), just before the main trail crosses a streambed. This is the trail to one of the three Indian ruins we visited on this hike … the third one. However, we decided to defer a visit to these ruins until after we had visited the more impressive sites on the opposite canyon wall, so we continued on until we came to the trail turnoff. The turnoff, located about 0.45 miles on up Loy Canyon Trail (at 34°56'44.75"N; 111°55'28.08"W), is not very visible; however, it is well marked by a large dead tree with cropped limbs.  The photograph shown here (right) is a view of the dead tree as seen from just down the trail from the turnoff.

We decided to stop at the turnoff for a group photograph, nine of us posed in the tree.  The tenth hiker used George's camera to take the photograph (below).

Left to right (top to bottom):“ Ellis Price, Dolly Yapp, Lila Wright, Gordon Bice, George Everman, Miriam Sterling, Anita Jackson, Daisy Williams and Betty Wolters – photograph by tenth hiker using George's camera

The above group photograph, taken on 2 October 2010, includes all of the hikers, except Jim Manning, who visited the ruins on 13 January.

To orient ourselves, we wanted to locate the area where the first ruins were located. Luckily, we discovered that by walking a few yards on up the trail beyond the dead tree, and looking to the northwest, we had a clear view of the ruins (below) that were our goal. They appeared to be about two-thirds of the way up the canyon wall and above at least two major ledges that would have to be conquered on the way up.

View of ruins from Loy Canyon Trail – they are marked by a small red arrow

To this point the trail was well marked and the going easy. But we knew that when we left the main trail it would become much more difficult and would involve a lot of climbing over and around rock ledges as we attempted to find our way up the canyon wall to the ruins above.The second of the two ledges proved to be the more difficult. After a few false starts, we finally succeed by climbing up a narrow slit to emerge on the ledge just below the ruins. Hikers are shown here (below) climbing up the slit in the following two photographs.

Climbing up the slit – photograph by George Everman

Hikers emerging from the top of the slit

After we emerged from the slit, it was a short, relatively easy, climb on to the ruins.. The approximate location is 34°56'48.35"N; 111°55'40.99.” However, my GPS was acting erratically in the canyon and I cannot be sure of the exact location.

Another hiking group arrived while we were there. They did not appear to be at all happy to find us at the site. I would even go so far as to say that they bordered on being unfriendly. Although we observed later that they were visiting two of the same sites we were, they professed not to know of any other ruins in the area. When asked about other sites, they suggested the ruins on past Loy Butte that are visited by the pink jeep tours, never mentioning the other nearby site that they, as well as we, were visiting next.

The ruins turned out to be well worth the effort of the climb.

Hikers examining the ruins – Site 1

Just around a fold in the cliff was visible a smaller ruin placed all to itself and difficult to access from the main ruins. We decided to call it the “Mother in Law” cottage.

The “Mother in Law Cottage”- Site 1

We left soon after the other group arrived and stopped nearby for a snack break. While we were stopped, they climbed on up the wall of the canyon and traveled along the top to the next site. After our break we continued along the ledge we were on to find a place to ascend to the ledge where the next site was located. Coming around a corner, we could see the location of the site; however, there were sheer cliff walls between it and our position and it was necessary to climb up to the next ledge to pass above that section of cliff. The route proved to be circuitous, but not too strenuous. One spot did require a bit of climbing up a rock face. However, I discovered that it would be possible to avoid that spot by bushwhacking a bit further along the face of the ledge. When we topped out just above the level on which the next ruins were located and again rounded the corner of the cliff, we could see our goal ahead and slightly below us.

The second Indian Ruins visited are located at the base of the cliff between the Ponderosa Pine and the large vertical black stripes on the face of the cliff

(NOTE: Although they are not visible in this photograph, we could also see the other group of hikers ahead of us moving toward the ruins. We were pleased to find that they were gone by the time we arrived.)

The going from here proved to be fairly easy, with just a hundred yards or so of rather steep climbing near the ruins. This last, more difficult, leg of the trail leads through a grove of manzanita. I took the opportunity to stop for a few photographs of this attractive shrub (see below).

Manzanita below Indian Ruins                Manzanita below Indian Ruins

These ruins, located approximately at 34°56'42.05"N; 111°55'50.54"W, were not as impressive as the first site we visited.

Not much remained of any structures. There were some drawings; however, I am not sure which, if any, of them were really made by Indians.

Drawings at Indian Ruins – site two        Structural remains – site two

We have previously referred to this as the site of the turquoise cross. That name came from the small cross, located in the lower right quadrant of the above picture of the drawings. On closer examination, we decided that the cross is a fairly recent addition to the drawings. We were not sure of the other drawings; however, we were skeptical that any were actually made by the Indians.

When we were finished with this site, on our 13 January hike, we decided to retrace our steps back to the ledge on which the first ruins were located and see whether we could find an easier route for a future hikes planned for the entire Skyliner group. We did find a way to bypass the narrow slit we climbed up on our way up, and most of us took this route for the return trip on the 2 October hike. Few of the group really wanted to climb back down the narrow slit we had used for the ascent. But it should be noted that it is still a strenuous climb and that some of the group on any future hikes might wish to stop part way up and wait for the rest to return. There are numerous places that would make for a comfortable wait.

After returning to the Loy Canyon Trail, we headed back down the canyon and upon reaching the turnoff to the site of the cliff drawings, decided to explore those also. Accordingly, we turned up the streambed which is only a few yards from the trail to the drawings and followed it most of the way there before emerging and finishing the trip on the trail. This site, located at 34°56'30.24"N; 111°55'8.53"W, appears to have been mostly used for camping. There is an overhang of the cliff wall that would provide excellent shelter and a good place for fires. The drawings were a mixture of White man’s graffiti and other drawings, some of which could possibly have been made by Indians. Here are a few samples.

Miscellaneous Drawings – site three        Miscellaneous Drawings – site three

A Turtle? – site three                                  Very faint drawing – site three

We thought the drawing shown in the bottom left photograph (above) might be a turtle.

After lingering for a bit to discuss the drawings (and graffiti) we followed the trail that runs alongside the streamed back to the Loy Canyon Trail and then continued on to the trailhead.

My GPS file says that the hike was 7.2 miles; however that cannot be accurate. I think that the GPS signals were bouncing off the canyon walls causing major errors. Based on a quick measurement using Google Earth, I think we probably hiked about 4.60 miles.

Our GPS track, although incomplete and not of very good quality because of reception in the canyon, is shown on the included map (below). Note that only the approximate turnoff is shown for site 3.