Visit to Mindeleff Cavates

Six Skyliners (Lila Wright, Collene Maktenieks, Kwi Johnson, Connie Woolard, Pete Bolinger and the author) visited Mindeleff Cavates on 2 January 2014. Cavate, a combination of the words cave and excavate, refers to an artificial cave-like room carved out of soft rock. The cavates we visited, located in the cliffs along the Verde River at Wingfield Mesa, directly across from Beasley Flat, are named for archeologist Cosmos Mindeleff who conducted an archaeological survey of the site around 1891.¹

We had originally scheduled this hike for 21 December 2013, and we did attempt it at that time. However, we did not then know that Forest Road 9139P led to the overlook above the cavates and, as a result, parked alongside FR 503 and hiked for some 2 miles along the rim of the mesa to reach that point. It had rained the night before, the grass was still wet and our feet were soon soaked. To make matters worse, it again rained while we were hiking. In spite of these drawbacks, we did reach the site, looked down and saw some cavates that are located in the north-facing wall of the canyon.

Cavates in north canyon wall as seen from viewpoint at the end of FR 9139P

We then hiked on down the slope, following a trail that ran along an old roadbed and came out on top of the cliff just above the cavates we had seen. Unfortunately, there was no obvious way to descend to them and it was still raining, so we decided to turn back and try again when the weather was more favorable. We had at least seen enough of the surrounding terrain that we were sure we could fairly easily make our way down to the cavates; but we would pick a sunny day following several days of dry weather.

That day had now come, less than two weeks later, and we again accessed the area by way of Wingfield Mesa. To get there we drove 7.1 miles east on Hwy 260 from the I-17/Hwy 260 junction at Camp Verde. We then turned right onto East Verde Lakes Drive and continued for 0.8 miles, turned right onto Clinton Drive and followed it for 0.1 miles and turned right on East Lazar Road and continued for 0.3 miles before turning left onto South Arizona Avenue. We followed South Arizona which became FR 503 a distance of 1.8 miles from Lazar Road before turning left onto FR 9139P. We then followed 9139P for 2.1 miles to it's end at the top of the cliffs above Mindeleff Cavates.

On our previous trip we had looked north across the canyon and noted that additional cavates were located all along the south-facing wall. We had also taken a different route back to the top of the cliff by just leaving the old road and heading straight up the slope. Along the way, we had encountered a faint trail near the top that led us the rest of the way up. This time we decided that we would take that trail back down and see whether we could work our way down into the canyon and across to the south facing wall. We would first investigate the cavates there and then cross over to the north-facing wall to look at the ones that were visible from the viewpoint above (photograph above).

After about 0.2 miles the trail faded out and we found ourselves on the sharp ridge that formed the south side of the canyon in which the cavates are located. Looking ahead, we couldn't see any better place to descend, so we turned off the ridge and started angling our way down the steep, rocky slope, wending our way between catclaw and cactus as we went. The descent turned out to be easier than I had expected, having been warned that we wouldn't be able to find our way down at all without a guide; but it was still very steep and required care to avoid falling. Hikers are shown below descending the worst part of the trail'

Left to right: Lila and Connie

Left to right: Kwi and Collene

We soon reached the first cavate.  It looked rather small from the outside, but was larger inside than it appeared. There was plenty of room to stand up. I climbed inside and took photographs as Lila and Pete entered.

First cavate

Lila entering cavate

We continued along the wall of the canyon, entering cavates along the way. They were essentially similar, a large common room and smaller alcoves, mostly for storage, but some large enough to sleep in.

Kwi is seen below crawling back out of one of the larger side chambers that might well have been used for sleeping. Directly across the canyon from the ledge we were traveling along to visit the south-facing cavates, we could see those in the north-facing wall that had been visible from the viewpoint at the end of FR 9139P.

Kwi crawling out of a side chamber

Cavates in north-facing wall seen from across the canyon

Accessing the cavates across the canyon from us would not be too difficult. We would just have to make our way down a fairly steep slope to the bottom and then climb the slope shown in the above photograph. We could then continue at the same level around the corner of the cliff and travel along the west face until we found a point at which we could climb to the top.

Connie found several pottery shards as we descended the slope below the dwellings. The examples shown here (left) were found directly below the cavates near the bottom of the south-facing slope.

From across the canyon, it had appeared, at least to me, that one of the north-facing dwellings might have a man-made rock wall enclosing part of the space. It turned out that what I had thought was a wall was really just fallen rock; however, we did find the remnant of a mortared rock wall (right) in the same dwelling. The wall seemed to have served to form some sort of small storage chamber.

Some of the dwellings were surprisingly roomy, with ample room to stand and move around in the main chamber and with smaller storage and or sleeping chambers carved in the walls. Shown here (left) is the entrance to one such dwelling. The main chamber of this particular dwelling was roughly circular and dome shaped with a diameter of around 20 feet. It had two smaller chambers carved in the walls. One of these was large enough to have been used as a sleeping chamber. Both are shown below.

Small inner chamber

Larger inner chamber

We continued west along the north-facing canyon wall until we reached the corner and turned south, still at the same level along the cliff face. The Verde River was now below us and Beasley Flat was clearly visible just on the other side. Additional dwellings, similar to all the others we had seen, had been carved from the sandstone cliff all along this west-facing wall.

Just before we came to the end of the sheer rock wall, someone noted a honeycomb (right) neatly tucked into a fissure in the cliff face.

The climb back to the top was relatively straightforward but pretty steep. Access to the site from this point would certainly be an option, but we agreed that the way we had descended was preferable.

On top of the cliff, still some 250 feet below where we were parked at the edge of Wingfield Mesa, we had great views up and down the Verde River. Looking beyond the mouth of the canyon we had followed down to the ruins, we could see that additional dwellings were located in the south-facing wall of the next canyon upstream. According to ArizonaRuins.com, the Mindeleff site contains approximately 89 dwellings and around 343 rooms. They indicate that the sight would have housed at least 250 people at its peak.²

We were now a little more that 150 feet above the river in a relatively flat area that sloped fairly gently to the south. We were surrounded by what appeared to be the remains of ancient pit houses. I do not know whether they were inhabited at the same time as the cavates.

Pit house ruins above Mindeleff Cavates

We stopped here for lunch before starting the climb back to our vehicles waiting on Wingfield Mesa. We returned by following along the edge of the canyon we had descended into earlier until we reached the faint trail we had followed on the way down. We passed the point where we had descended from the rim into the canyon. The return was quick and relatively easy, just 0.4 miles with an elevation gain of around 250 feet. This is a much better route, whether going up or down, than the trail we descended on two weeks ago.

According to my GPS track, we hiked 1.3 miles. Our highest elevation was 3370 feet and the elevation difference was 356 feet. However, it must be noted that my GPS was quite erratic in the canyon, especially given that I was in and out of cavates where no reception at all was available. I cleaned the track up as best I could.

Our track is shown on the included map (below). The red track generally shows our hike route. However, as already noted my GPS was very erratic while in the canyon and, of course, cut out out each time I entered a cavate. I cleaned the track up as best I could and reconnected a lot of lost portions to complete the track shown. With that said, the upper portion of the trail, before we left the faint trail and descended into the canyon should be quite accurate. The section of track from the pit house ruins back to the trailhead, along with the green track taken from our earlier trip, should also be accurate

1 Aboriginal Remains in Verde Valley, Arizona Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1891-92, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896, pages 179-262

2 http://www.arizonaruins.com/mindeleff_cavates/mindeleff_cavates.html