Indian Ruins in Sycamore Basin

On 12 November 2012, Jim Manning and the author camped at the edge of the Sycamore Canyon wilderness area to look for Indian ruins in the wilderness. Four Skyliners had hiked to the area on Packard Trail the previous March and searched for the ruins without success. However, we did note then that FR 181 ended at the area we had hiked to on our search; we determined that we would drive to the end of that road at some future date, camp overnight, and search for the ruins again. This was that return trip.

As it were, by the time we left for the planned campout, only Jim Manning and I were left of the original four, the others having dropped out for various reasons.

Leaving from Cottonwood, we drove to Jerome on Hwy 89A, turned at the firestation onto Perkinsville Road and followed it for 3.2 miles beyond the Verde River Bridge at Perkinsville before turning onto FR 181. Perkinsville Road, although unpaved was in good condition; however, FR 181 turned out to be pretty rough. The below photograph provides a good example of the road surface.

Surface condition of FR 181

In some short stretches, the road was in better condition. However, for the most part it was about as shown or even rougher, in several cases much rougher, along with being steep and crooked. We were indeed glad that we had high-clearance, 4-wheel drive vehicles. Our average speed on this toad was less than seven miles per hour.

After around 6.8 miles of slow, careful driving we found that we had wound our way deep into Railroad Draw. After another mile we were out of the draw and had arrived at Henderson Flat. There we found an old, abandoned two-room bunkhouse (see photograph, next page) and a large steel water tank located under a catchment structure designed to funnel rainwater into the tank.

Steel tank located under catchment structure – note that the “roof” 

slopes to the center, funneling water into the tank

The above photograph was taken from a window of the old bunkhouse.

Deserted bunkhouse at Henderson flat

We saw a trail sign near the bunkhouse that at first caused us to think this place was called Lonesome Pocket; however, on further consideration, it was obvious that the sign only marked a trail that leads to Lonesome Pocket which, I later determined, is about two miles north (slightly east) from this point.

Leaving the bunkhouse/steel tank area, we headed on south on FR 181, coming, after less than a tenth of a mile, to the remains of Henderson Tank. This was a large tank formed by damming the wash that runs parallel to and on the east side of the road. The only remaining sign of the tank is the remains of the old earthen dam which ends at a rock wall that formed one side of a spillway, necessary to prevent water from overflowing the dam and washing it away.

The rock wall shown here forms the end on the earthen dam that trapped 

intermittent stream flow and retained it in “Henderson Tank.”

I had thought that the trip from Henderson Flat to the end of FR 181 where we intended to camp would only be about two miles. It turned out to be 5.5 miles and was the roughest part of the entire trip, taking an entire hour to drive. We did, however, eventually reach the end of the road and found ourselves just at the edge of Sycamore Canyon Wilderness.

Signage and unused check-in box marking the entrance of Sycamore Basin 

Trail #63 into the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness.

We wanted to find the Indian Ruins before dark, but delayed long enough to set up our tents before starting the search. We had been told that one should continue for a short distance from this point along an old jeep road running almost directly east into the wilderness area. When we came to the end of the jeep road, we were alongside a wash that ran downhill from a saddle between two hills. We could see a prominent rock ledge below the saddle on the right side of the wash that might be difficult to climb; however, the left side of the wash was very steep and looked even more difficult. Obviously, we would need to ascent to the saddle along the right side of the wash and, looking across the wash from where we were standing, just a few yards from the very end of the jeep road, a trail was clearly visible leaving the other side.

Trail visible from the old jeep road as it leaves the other side of the 

wash just across from the end of the road

On leaving the wash, the trail wound back to the left and came out in the saddle shown in the left of the above photograph. It is a bit rocky, but relatively easy to follow. If one does go astray, it soon becomes apparent and one has only to retrace a few steps and try another path. Except for a few very rocky spots, never more than a few yards in length, the trail is really quite visible all the way to the ruins.

On arriving at the saddle, we were faced with two smaller saddles ahead to the left. The first, leftmost, saddle is flanked by two substantial peaks, the second or rightmost saddle, however, is formed by a substantial peak on one side but by a much smaller outcropping of rock on the other. This is the one that leads to the Indian Ruins. It would, in any case, be difficult to go wrong here, as a very visible trail leads up to the correct pass.

On reaching the saddle, we were rewarded by a fantastic view down into Sycamore Canyon, across to Casner Mountain on the other side and on to the snow-clad San Francisco Peaks beyond the Mogollon Rim.

View from the saddle as we approached the Indian Ruins

We lingered awhile in the saddle to enjoy the view and then pushed on to find the ruins. The trail descended steeply for a short distance from the saddle before leveling off and continuing along the cliff face. We didn't know how much farther it would be to the ruins and were conscious of the time. The ruin, however, turned out to be only about 200-yards beyond the saddle. None of the reports I had read seemed to indicate that it was this close and I was pleasantly surprised to look up an see it, tucked neatly into the cliff wall, directly above me.

Indian Ruins in Sycamore Basin

Jim climbed up first while I waited below to take a picture.

Jim Manning looking out over Sycamore Basin from the Indian Ruins

We spent a considerable amount of time examining the ruins. The following two pictures show one of the rooms from above and from inside.

Room from above

Room from inside

As we descended from the ruin, I paused to take a photograph of a supporting wall. Note the bulging area; it is just below and provides support for the outer wall of the room in the above two photographs.

The bulging section is a supporting wall

About half way back to the saddle through which we had passed to reach the ruins, I noted a sign tacked to a tree about 15 yards below the trail. A very faint trail led downward at this point and we at first thought it must be where hikers had descended to read the sign which was unreadable from the main trail. However, the faint trail turned before reaching the tree and led a few yards along the cliff face to second, much smaller, ruin (see photograph at right). This ruin consists basically of a single still-standing wall that has mostly been reconstructed. However the first run of rocks in the lower right quadrant still have some mud plaster left. Rocks from the other walls of the structure are scattered about, some appearing as if walls had been deliberately pushed over.

After a quick look around this ruin, we climbed back up top the main trail, pausing along the way to examine the sign (see photograph at left) that had led us to leave the main trail and discover the second ruin. The sign announced that this is an “Archaeological Site” which is “monitored by the Arizona Site Stewards.”

It was now well past sundown on this side of the mountain and we lost no time in climbing back up to the saddle and returning to camp. We had accomplished our primary goal for the trip and were now free to explore whatever else we chose.

As we approached our camp. We gathered the materials we would need to start a fire – mainly dry grass and some small twigs for kindling. However, when we arrived back in camp we found the sun still well above the horizon on this side of the mountain, so we put our kindling aside and set out to explore some interesting outcroppings in the cliff wall just north of us. We left camp following Trail 53 (Henderson Flat Trail); however, after finding a few cairns, and not much else, along the way, we gave that up and just headed for the cliff. We found, as expected, that the outcroppings were formed by spires of soft rock protected by harder overlying caps. They stood close to but apart from the cliff face itself and formed small alcoves. The photograph shown below was taken from one of those alcoves. Despite appearances, the rock formations at the top of the photograph are not joined but stand apart when not viewed from an angle.

Looking out from an alcove

Looking out to the south, across Packard Mesa, from our location, we could see Mingus Mountain and Woodchute Mountain on the horizon.

Mingus and Woodchute Mountains on the horizon

Using his field glasses, Jim could make out the “J” on Cleopatra Hill above Jerome, both from our perch on the cliff wall and later from the camp site. Later that night, I found that I could just make out the faint glow of light from Jerome itself.

We were back at camp with a good fire going in time to have a hot meal by dark. Jim had brought a camp lantern with him. However, we really didn't make much use of it, as we were both tucked snugly into our tents soon after dark.

The National Weather Service forecast called for a low of 28 degrees F and I think they were about spot on. At least we had ice in our water bottles the next morning and the campfire, as we prepared and ate breakfast, felt very good indeed.

After breakfast we broke camp, extinguished our fire and then decided to hike a distance into Sycamore Basin on Trail 63 to see what the trail descent looked like. We found it to be less steep than we had feared. The trail is well-constructed with erosion barriers placed along the way and is in reasonably good condition. We followed it for about a mile through a pinion pine and juniper forest, passing an old unmarked grave site along the way. Then, looking ahead, we could see that it continued for a distance climbing and falling across gentle forested slopes; we had seen what we came to see, so we turned back after having descended only about a mile into the wilderness area. By returning to camp now, we would be able to make make it back as far as Henderson Flat and eat lunch at the old bunkhouse. That would enable us to get back home by the middle of the afternoon.

Our hike from the camp (which, incidentally, was at the end of Packard Mesa Trail #66 as well as at the end of FR 181) to the Indian Ruins we visited is shown in red on page 1 of the included map (see next page). Our trip to visit the the cliff alcoves is shown in light green, FR 181 is shown in dark green, the hike into Sycamore Basin on Trail 63 is shown in cyan and Trail 53 is shown in yellow.

It was only about 0.7 miles, one way, from our camp to the Indian Ruins we visited; our hike along the cliff walls to investigate alcoves was about 0.8 miles round trip; and our hike on Trail 63 was some 2 miles, round trip.

For future reference, there are three other Indian Ruins shown along the cliff walls just north of the ones we visited. I have identified the locations of these and have shown them on page 2 of the included map (see Ruin 1, Ruin 2 and Ruin 3). I located these sites using a USGS Survey overlay in Google Earth and transposed them into the mapping program I use.