Henderson Flat – Indian Ruins

Four Skyliners (Jim Manning, David Beach, Frank Lombardo and the author) camped at Henderson Flat on 02 November 2013. The purpose of our visit was to search for three Indians Ruins we had heard were located in the hills above the flat. I had found the locations of the three ruins noted on an old USGS map and we were fairly sure that we knew just where to look, so we set out on this bright and sunny day with a great deal of confidence.

Leaving from Cottonwood, we drove to Jerome on Hwy 89A, turned at the firestation onto Perkinsville Road, crossed the river on the Perkinsville Bridge and continued for another 3.2 miles before turning right onto Forest Road 181. Perkinsville Road, from Jerome to the FR 181 turnoff, although unpaved was in excellent condition; however, FR 181 turned out to be extremely rough, along with being crooked and steep. It should not be attempted with other than high-clearance, 4-wheel-drive vehicles.

About 6.8 miles along FR 181 we were deep in Railroad Draw. Another mile brought us to Henderson Flat where we intended to camp for the night. Jim Manning and I had driven this way just last year to camp out and visit ruins in Sycamore Basin, but I had remembered the distance to Henderson flat as being only 5.6 miles. This time, I thought we would never get there. Later I checked the report for last year's trip and found that the distance was 7.8 rather than 5.6 miles. So much for my memory. Our intended camping spot is marked by an old bunkhouse (above right) and a “trick” tank, the sort of tank that receives the water it stores from a collector rather than from natural runoff. In this case, the collector serves as a roof over the tank itself, as shown in the below photograph taken from a bunkhouse window in November of last year.

“Trick” tank at Henderson Flat and the hills where the Indian Ruins are 

located

The tank shown here with its own collector replaced an older now dried up tank, located a short distance downslope from the bunkhouse. The old tank was of traditional earth-dug construction and depended on natural runoff. The bunkhouse itself had been fitted with guttering that fed a large metal tank (cistern) installed to hold water for human habitation. It was all very elaborate for the few cows we saw, either on this visit or the one last year, and we think the area must have been much more heavily-grazed in the past. Obviously, the long-unused bunkhouse indicates that ranchhands were once in semi-permanent residence at the site.

We arrived at Henderson Flat, set up camp near the old bunkhouse, and were on our way to search for ruins by 1000. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and I planned to just toss my sleeping bag in the bed of my pickup, so my set-up was minimal. The other three campers all set up tents.

I had mapped the locations of the three ruins we were interested in on my GPS and we set out across country to the nearest one. I had been told that they were not very impressive ruins, but we were at least as interested in the search as the ruins themselves and were undeterred.

We crossed into boundary into into the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness area short distance from camp and continued on up the mountain slope, traveling at an angle that required us to cross a couple of washes. The washes were not very deep; however, they were pretty well choked with catclaws, manzanitas and cacti, making the going very difficult and slow. The manzanitas were difficult enough, growing thickly as they tend to do and making passage difficult. The catclaws and the cacti, however, seemed to actively retaliate, the catclaws jumping out to catch us and the cacti launching their spines as projectiles whenever we came near. The catclaws just took a vengeful bite and let go. However, the cactus spines were another matter entirely. They immediately penetrated clothing (even shoes) and quickly embedded themselves into flesh like little heat-seeking missiles.

But, hey, of what matter are a few inconveniences when one is climbing a mountain with friends searching for ruins. Anyway, as we climbed higher we had great views across the way to Mingus and Woodchute Mountains, although the view was somewhat obscured by smoke from a prescribed burn on the other side of Mingus. As we climbed higher, the growth thinned out a bit and we were better able to avoid some the cacti and catclaws, but the way was now steep and rocky.

About a mile from camp and some 300 feet higher, we were approaching the spot where we thought the first ruin was located. It seemed a very unlikely spot and I thought that my information must be wrong.

Approaching the location of the first ruin

However, just when we were ready to give up and head for the next location, a member of our party checked behind some heavy growth and we heard him shout “Indian Ruin.” There they were, a bit more impressive than expected from the information provided by others.

Frank Lombardo at the ruin

A still-standing wall is shown below. Part of the overhang has collapsed filling the space behind the wall with broken rock. We spent some time poking around in the ruin, finding little except a single pottery shard.

Debris contained behind wall

Pottery shard

Quite pleased with ourselves for having found the first site, we set out with renewed enthusiasm for the next location I had marked in my GPS. That site was a mere 0.1 miles and some fifty feet higher in elevation than the first site. Unfortunately, to get there we had to climb back across the ridge we were on descend, for over 200 feet, cross a wash and then climb back up another ridge following a very steep and rocky course. The total distance by this route was about 0.5 miles. The profile for this section of our hike is shown in here (above left).

We found this site more easily, actually stumbling over it on top of a ridge as we were heading to what I thought was a more likely spot. I had expected it to be tucked under an overhang and was heading to a rock outcropping which looked like a good place for one when someone said “here it is.” This one was constructed on the very crest of the ridge we had climbed, just below a further rise in the ridge marked by red rocks. The following photograph shows a section of wall from the old structure and beyond a glimpse of the red rock marking a further rise in the ridge.

Wall remains at bottom, foot of cliff marking a further rise of the ridge at top

We found a few pottery shards, examined them and, as always, left them at the site. Just at the base of the red rock cliff shown in the top right quadrant of the above photograph, we saw evidence of another smaller structure. For storage?

Pottery shards

Remains of small structure … storage?

We were doing quite well. We had found two of the sites we were searching for and were preparing to head for the third. Suddenly, however, we again heard the cry of “Indian Ruins” from a member of the party who had climbed the low red-rock cliff ahead. He had spotted, across the canyon, an unexpected ruin that we had not known was there. It was just a little higher than we were and it appeared that we would be able to reach it by following the contour line around the canyon instead of hiking down to cross the wash and coming back up the other side. We could tell from where we were that it was more substantial than anything we had expected to find today, so we immediately cancelled plans for the other ruin we had anticipated hiking to and headed for this one. The photograph below, taken from just above the second ruin we found shows the unexpected ruin from about 0.1 miles away.

Looking across the canyon at the unexpected ruin

The hike along the canyon wall to get to the other side proved to be perilous and difficult. We had to watch carefully to avoid slipping on loose rocks, all the while dodging cacti and catclaws. By the time I reached the ruin it was again time to stop and remove spines, and I must have spent fifteen minutes at the task before I was ready to hike again.

This ruin contained seven rooms (eight if one counts a small subdivision within one of the larger rooms) and at one time had a second story, probably doubling the number of rooms. The most substantial, still-standing wall is shown here (right). Note that the lower portion of the wall is mortared while the rest is not. Perhaps it was torn down and rebuilt at sometime in the past. Or, possibly, the upper part was just constructed at a later date using a different technique. A pole can be seen extending through the wall about a third of the way from the top. This marks a division between floors.

This photograph (left), taken from the other side of the wall, shows the top part of wall from the poles marking the division of floors up. Most of the upper portion of this side of the wall is mortared. The small section at the very top of the wall appears to have been added at a later date.

Jim Manning is seen examining the aforementioned wall in the following photograph.

Jim Manning examining the large, partially-mortared wall

The below photograph, taken as we were leaving the area, shows the ruin from the end opposite our entry point.

Photograph taken looking back as we were leaving the ruins

As might be inferred from the number of photographs shown here, we spent considerably more time at this ruin than at either of the first two sites. There was, after all, a lot more to see here. When we were through, we decided to make our way diagonally down the wall to the bottom of the canyon and then follow along the wash toward the flat below. We thought we were a bit over a mile from camp and expected to intersect Henderson Flat Trail #53, running up the valley from Sycamore Tank, about half way there.

As it turned out, we were not too far off. We travelled 0.7 miles down the steep canyon wall, along the wash at the bottom and across several other brush, catclaw and cactus-infested washes before finding the trail. The trail itself, although marked by cairns and relatively easy to follow, appeared to be little used. We followed it for 0.6 miles back to camp, passing the dyke that had formed the old tank Henderson Flat along the way. Before it was drained this must have been a substantial tank; it appears to have covered several acres and the dyke had a rock-lined sluice at one end to prevent erosion of the earthen dyke.

We arrived back at camp at 1600, having been on the trail (or, rather, struggling through the brush) for six hours. I was tired and peppered with of cactus spines, but after a few minutes of rest while plucking the spines from inconvenient places, felt much better.

The smoke from the prescribed burn had by now largely dissipated, but had been replaced by a few threatening, clouds that might well be a harbinger of rain showers. I decided that I would pitch my tent after all; it was going to be a fairly chilly night and I certainly didn't want to spend part of it wet. Later during the night, when I heard the pitter-patter of raindrops on my tent, I snuggled with great satisfaction deeper into my warm, cozy sleeping bag.

But before bedding down, we must cook supper and we were all looking forward to some time around the campfire. I had thought that we might have trouble finding nearby fuel for our campfire at the flat. It is an ideal place to camp and shows much evidence of being so used, so I thought that all available fuel would have been used already and brought along some firewood. As it turned out, fuel was plentiful and I wound up bringing my wood home again. There were a number of fire rings left by previous campers, so we just selected the most convenient one and soon were gathered around the campfire to eat, review our day's activities and plan for the morrow.

An early dinner around the campfire with the setting sun still lighting the 

mountains in the background. Does it get any better than this?

We had hiked 3.0 miles, mostly through thick brush and found three ruins, one entirely unexpected. The total ascent was 949 feet and the highest elevation was 5231 feet. Our track and the locations of the ruins are shown on the included map (below).

Henderson Flat – Lonesome Pocket Trail

We got a leisurely start the next morning. We had decided to hike on Lonesome Pocket Trail #61 which leads generally north from Henderson Flat. The trail is marked by cairns and we actually saw a few footprints for the first half mile or so. After that there was no indication of recent usage. At first the trail leads through a meadow; it then enters a juniper forest, rises at a fairly gentle slope, and crosses several washes, gradually becoming steeper and rockier. Soon after leaving the meadow, we found several fossilized sea shells, such as the example shown here (above right). These were found only along a short stretch of the trail. After that, the composition of the rocks changed and we found we were moving through an area of broken up sandstone that appeared to have been deposited in relatively thin layers and was marked by intriguing designs.

About a mile from camp we came to a fork in the trail. According to the trail sign posted sign (left), our trail continued straight ahead for 2.0 miles while a trail to forking to the left would lead to Sand Flat, 6.0 miles away.

We certainly did not have time to hike to Sand Flat as we had decided that we would leave for home at 1200, so we continued on toward Lonesome Pocket. Actually we would not even have time to hike all the way to the pocket, but would just go as far as we could and still be back at Henderson Flat by noon.

As we continued on up the trail we noted a volcanic intrusion left exposed when the softer surrounding material had eroded away, see photograph below. Meanwhile the trail became ever steeper and rockier.

Volcanic intrusion

Steep, rocky trail to Lonesome Pocket

After some more hard climbing we reached a very narrow section of the ridgeline and the trail ahead seemed to level off a bit. We paused there for a snack and I snapped a photograph of my fellow hikers.

Left to right: David Beach, Frank Lombardo and Jim Manning

Even though, as already noted, the trail did level off somewhat for a short distance, we could see that further ahead was another steep climb on up to Lonesome Pocket on top of the mountain. It was now close to 1030, so we decided to return to camp after our snack. We arrived back at camp at about 1140 and were shortly on our way back home.

I recorded the round trip hike distance as 2.9 miles, the total ascent as 912 feet and the highest elevation as 5760 feet.

Our track for the hike on Lonesome Pocket Trail is shown following (below).