Visiting the Palatki Ruins near Sedona, AZ

Armed with sunscreen, water and hats to shade our faces - our group headed off to the Palatki Ruins. Left to right - Cheryl, Linda, Pearl, Flo, Barb, Co, Susan, and Anne. 
The Palatki Ruins and Rock Art are off the beaten path just outside Sedona and well worth the historic experience.  

There are actually two sites. One is the actual ruins of the Sinaqua Cliff Dwellers and the other is over 1,000 petroglyphs and pictographs carved and painted into the rocks and formations by prehistoric natives that occupied the area during various times in ancient history.

We found these remains of a dwelling on one of the paths that we took.

Palatki is a Hopi Indian word meaning “red house”. The cliff dwelling was built by the Sinaqua Indians (Spanish for “without water”) about 1150 and was mysteriously abandoned at about 1300.

Our Guide for the Ruins was Charlie - he was a wealth of information telling us many historical tidbits of the ancient dwellers here.  He even had binoculars for those of us who forgot ours so that we could get a closer look at the ruins.

The Palatki Ruins are hidden behind some trees and if you didn’t know the dwelling was there, it would be easy to miss.  Visitors used to be able to walk right up to the ruins - but with the rocks starting to crumble above, it's too dangerous for the park to let us climb any closer.  So even with our telephoto lenses this was the best we could do for photos. 

 According to the Ranger and evidenced by the ceiling heights of the dwelling, the Sinaquas were short people of about 5 1/2 feet tall.  Unlike our kids today that stand over 6ft tall.....

We saw lots of beautiful flowering cactus along our hikes - the 90 degree weather this time of year pushes those lovely blooms right out. 

We hiked up to the Rock Art site and found another Guide who pointed out many Pictographs.

The Rock Art site is nearby the cliff dwelling ruins, but the two sites are not related to each other. The pictographs and petroglyphs on the wall of the red cliffs date back to 6,000 years ago, thousands of years before the Sinaqua built the cliff dwelling. The black art is made with charcoal, mixed with organic binders such as blood or fruit juice,

The white rock art is made with kaolin clay and includes ancient pictorial writings left by numerous native prehistoric people that preceded the Sinaquas. There are even writings and names carved into the rocks by settlers in the area dated in the 1880s.

Some of the  drawings were clay, etchings made by Navajo on hallucinogens, holes bored in by buckshot, and a wide array of things. Pretty neat when you've got a ranger there explaining it to you.

All of the Rock Art had meanings - and the Ranger said no one was really sure what they meant - they just guessed that many of the drawings were of the everyday things they saw and experienced - like falling rain here.

The Ranger said that ancestors of Native American's lived in the area from around 1150 to 1300 CE. Some of the petroglyphs are estimated to be 5,000 to 6,000 years old and came from the more archaic cultures. 

Using pigments made from kaolin clay (white), pulverized hematite (red), powdered limonite (yellow) or charcoal (black), mixed with organic binders such as blood or fruit juice, the residents of the area produced a wide variety of abstract symbols, as well as representations of themselves and animals.

The views of the red rocks here at Palatki against the blue skies were lovely.

After a great day of hiking we visited the famous Hog Wild a restaurant known for their delicious BBQ Ribs, Pork and Chicken.  Our friends Susan and Anne share a 'sampler platter' with sweet potato fries.

Sorry that this photos is a bit blurry - I took it with my phone and I think my hand shook .... but you can see we are all enjoying the BBQ treats....