Contributory members are able to log private notes and comments about each site
Sites Bat400 has logged. View this log as a table or view the most recent logs from everyone
Mesa Verde - Cliff Palace
Date Added: 5th Jun 2012
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 28th Apr 2012. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 3
Mesa Verde - Cliff Palace submitted by DrewParsons on 18th Oct 2008. Mesa Verde - The Cliff Palace. September 2005
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in the park. It faces west and gets maximum light in the late afternoon. You are allowed to walk along the restored retaining wall (now a walkway) and around several kivas in front of the square tower. We were invited to look up into the Sqare Tower to see the plastered wall mural on the thrid floor, which I was itching to do since I knew it was up there. This access is only as part of a tour, although you can look from two different overlooks to your heart's content, sans guidance.
There are simple tour guides available, and a great many web and other media resources you can absorb ahead on your visit. The ranger will give you a substantial amount of information on the current archaeological thought about why the cliff dwellings were built and later abandoned, as well as the history of excavation and resoration. How well they do this probably varies, although I was very satisfied with my tour's leader.
This is one of the most visited on Ranger Led tours. (These tours are for a very small additional fee over the park entrance fee, but they limit the number of people who can visit the site.) The rangers will warn you (for all tours) about the number of steps, ladders, and the impact of altitude. If you are used to hiking and are moderately healthy, this tour is not difficult, even accounting for the altitude.
The tour is advertised as 1 hour long, although this stretches in the shoulder season when there are fewer tours scheduled farther apart.
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Alto
Date Added: 1st Jun 2012
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 26th Apr 2012. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 2
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo Alto submitted by bat400 on 27th May 2012. One of the larger standing walls of the ruin. Most of the structure has been backfilled for its protection.
Photo by bat400.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: I decided to hike directly to the site and back using the park service trail (which also includes a loop on the mesa top with an overlook of the Chetro Ketl site and a view of the Jackson Staircase, an ancient stairway carved into the cliff.)
Pueblo Alto has had minimal excavations. The southwestern portion has the most exposed and intact portions, and the walls there show broad stone blocks separated by thin bands of tabular stone. But, the entire site can be circled, seeing the layout of the rooms and central plaza. If you feel the need to cross the mound of the rooms to the central plaza (not expressly forbidden, but definitely discouraged) please follow a path that has already been made, and don't step on the structures stones.
From the northern room blocks there are signs identifying Huerfano Mountain on the horizon in the direction of a northern Chaco road that led toward Chacoan communities on the San Jaun River.
The most difficult part of this hike (which took two and a half hours to walk to Pueblo Alta, New Alta and back, with stops for photography and viewing Pueblo Bonito from the cliff edge) was getting up on the mesa from the trailhead (and back down). From the trailhead parking area, you walk on a flat track to Kin Kletso. Then directly behind that site you go straight up the cliff, following a marked but tightly switch backed climb over boulders for about 40 feet high. The last bit of this is unsupported on the west side (sheer drop off,) but you'd really have to be flailing around to make it dangerous. At this point you can see where the trail goes up a crack behind the cliff face. Although this too is over boulders, you are in the shade and have the cliff walls on both sides until you emerge at the top, 140 feet off the canyon floor.
The trail goes over bare rock along the edge of the cliff (following small cairns) and then turns north toward the two mesa top Great Houses. You have to climb up one more terrace (again, over boulders - tough on my short legs) and then the path is very obvious, through the sage brush and clumps of wildflowers (blooming in April). The total elevation change from the canyon floor appears to be about 250 feet, but if you are a flat lander, it seems like more than that.
Follow the park guidelines and take plenty of water (even if you end up bringing some of it back with you), where a hat and decent walking shoes/boots. I would say a long sleeve cotton shirt is a must, and I also took a jacket (just in case.) The temperature was actually fairly cool, but the only shade was when you are going up the crack in the cliff, so it felt quite warm.
The park service makes this portion of the trail as easy as possible with markers at turns and occasionally placing placards by objects of interest. These include exposed fossils, two bedrock grinding bowls, actual stairs created by the Chacoans, and a portion of ancient roadway showing the stone cerb. I also saw a fairly obvious spiral petroglyph on a boulder.
Chaco Culture NHP - Chetro Ketl
Date Added: 29th May 2012
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 26th Apr 2012. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 4
Chaco Culture NHP - Chetro Ketl submitted by bat400 on 27th May 2012. The Great Kiva of Chetro Ketl. Aside from the missing roof and plaster, this is possible the finest preserved Great Kiva in the southwest.
Photo by bat400, April 2012.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: None
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo del Arroyo
Date Added: 29th May 2012
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Saw from a distance. My rating: Condition 3 Access 4
Chaco Culture NHP - Pueblo del Arroyo submitted by bat400 on 27th May 2012. A view of the Great House taken from the cliffs on the north side of the canyon.
Photo by bat400, April 2012.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: None
Chaco Culture NHP - Kin Kletso
Date Added: 29th May 2012
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 26th Apr 2012. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 5 Access 3
Chaco Culture NHP - Kin Kletso submitted by bat400 on 1st Jun 2012. View from a resting place halfway up the cliff just north of the site.
Photo by bat400, April 2012.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: None
Chaco Culture NHP - Hungo Pavi
Date Added: 29th May 2012
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 25th Apr 2012. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4
Chaco Culture NHP - Hungo Pavi submitted by bat400 on 27th May 2012. The interior of a room in the northeast corner of the complex. The ground floor room is almost completely filled with shifted sand and earth. The second floor room above it is marked by the line of secondary beams below it.
Photo by bat400, April 2012.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: None
Mesa Verde - Sun Temple
Date Added: 5th Jun 2012
Site Type: Ancient Temple
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 28th Apr 2012. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5
Mesa Verde - Sun Temple submitted by bat400 on 2nd Jun 2012. The eastern end of the Sun Temple. Photo taken over the separate associated round structure.
Photo by bat400, April 2012.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: A large somewhat mysterious pueblo site on the lip on the canyon overlooking the Cliff Palace and about a dozen other sites. What you see is a restoration, although when the mound of collected dust, dirt, and fallen masonary was removed and examined, it was obvious that the building never had a roof. In that and other features, tt's quite different architecturally from any other sites at Mesa Verde or other places in the area.
You'll see photos showing visitors walking inside the massive outer walls, using ladders to climb in and out of the site, but this doesn't seem to be allowed any more.
Mesa Verde - Square Tower House
Date Added: 14th Jun 2012
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 27th Apr 2012. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 4
Mesa Verde - Square Tower House submitted by DrewParsons on 18th Oct 2008. Detail of the Square Tower House site at Mesa Verde
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: Observed from overlook. Short trail to the overlook from the road is not paved, fairly level.
Petroglyph Nat. Mon.
Date Added: 24th Jan 2016
Site Type: Rock Art
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3
Petroglyph Nat. Mon. submitted by mfrincu on 17th May 2015. Human figures at Piedras Marcadas in Albuquerque.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: None
Bandelier National Monument
Date Added: 28th Apr 2017
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 26th Feb 2013
Bandelier National Monument submitted by bat400 on 26th Feb 2013. A view of the main ruins sites on the floor of Frijoles Canyon. Tyounyi is to the left in tan colored stone. "Cavates" dug or enlarges in the cliff wall and the remains of a long line of buildings at the base of the cliff can be see along the cliff wall to the right and center.
Photo by bat400, April 2012.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: None
Bandelier National Mounument - Tyuonyi
Date Added: 28th Apr 2017
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 26th Feb 2013
Bandelier National Mounument - Tyuonyi submitted by bat400 on 26th Feb 2013. Tyuonyi pueblo as seen from the ledges along the cliffside. Originally there were 400 rooms, most of which were used for storage.
Photo by bat400.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: None
Bandelier National Monument - Long House
Date Added: 28th Apr 2017
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 26th Feb 2013
Bandelier National Monument - Long House submitted by bat400 on 26th Feb 2013. Pictogram in Long House Pueblo, which used the cliffside ans the back wall of the rooms.
Photo by bat400, April 2012.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: None
Bandelier National Monument - Alcove House
Date Added: 28th Apr 2017
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 26th Feb 2013
Bandelier National Monument - Alcove House submitted by bat400 on 26th Feb 2013. Alcove House.
Photo by bat400, April 2012.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: None
Desert Botanical Gardens
Date Added: 12th Mar 2018
Site Type: Museum
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 12th Mar 2018. My rating: Ambience 5 Access 5
Desert Botanical Gardens submitted by TimPrevett on 21st Apr 2011. The section of the Desert Botanical Gardens which covers Native dwellings and skills related to prehistoric American lifestyles.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: The museum displays of the Garden covering the Lifeways of people who lived in the Sonoran Desert remain well maintained and diverting. Docents stoll by frequently, ready to answer questions.
Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve
Date Added: 12th Mar 2018
Site Type: Rock Art
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 15th Mar 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4
Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve submitted by TimPrevett on 9th Dec 2009. Specimen of the large amount of rock art to be found here at Deer Valley Rock Art Center.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: A site with many, many individual glyphs. Take binoculars to better appreciate the art, which includes both representational figures and those that appear much more abstract.
A very well presented site with easy access on a flat quarter mile sand, gravel and concrete footpath. (Wheel chair access with minor assistance is possible on the trail.)
Pueblo Grande
Date Added: 12th Mar 2018
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 12th Mar 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 5
Pueblo Grande submitted by bat400 on 9th Mar 2010. The platform mound from the northwest. The remaining walls of ground level structures in the foreground.
Photo: Jan 2010, bat400.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: Still excellently maintained and easily accessible by car or public transport.
White Tank Mountains Petroglyphs
Date Added: 12th Mar 2018
Site Type: Rock Art
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 12th Mar 2018. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 3
White Tank Mountains Petroglyphs submitted by Flickr on 14th Apr 2014. Petroglyph along Waterfall Canyon Trail Image copyright: rightthewrong (Ryan Knapp), hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: A large regional park in the desert mountains to the west of the Phoenix area. Petroglyphs attributed to the Hohokam (most are abstract and not clearly representational.) The concentrations of these glyphs are on the Waterfall Canyon trail and the Black Rock trail, but can also be seen in other places in the park.
Agua Fria National Monument - Badger Springs Wash
Date Added: 21st Aug 2023
Site Type: Rock Art
Country: United States (The Southwest)
Visited: Yes on 1st Mar 2023. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3
Agua Fria National Monument - Badger Springs Wash submitted by bat400 on 21st Aug 2023. Panel at the Badger Springs Wash site.
Photo by bat400. Taken in March 2023.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: I visited on a weekday morning in overcast conditions. In March the vegetation is not as thick as it appears to get later in the year. The trail from the trail head rapidly becomes the spring itself, and although there are places along the left hand bank heading down to the site, You are likely to get your feet wet if there has been recent rain in the area.
This is a beautiful site, with a large pool at the confluence. At this point the Agua Fria canyon is not particularly deep, but at other locations the river is cut deeply into the mesa.
Maryhill Stonehenge
Date Added: 16th Jul 2013
Site Type: Modern Stone Circle etc
Country: United States (The West)
Visited: Yes on 16th Jul 2013. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 5
Maryhill Stonehenge war memorial submitted by stonetramp on 16th Oct 2007. Built by Sam Hill as a tribute to the soldiers of Klickitat County who lost their lives, Maryhill's Stonehenge is the first monument in our nation to honor the dead of World War I. The structure is a full-scale replica of England's famous neolithic Stonehenge. A Quaker pacifist, Hill was mistakenly informed that the original Stonehenge had been used as a sacrificial site, and thus constructed the replica to remind us that ''humanity is still being sacrificed to the god of war.'' The location now...
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: None
Columbia Hills State Park
Date Added: 11th Oct 2015
Site Type: Rock Art
Country: United States (The West)
Visited: Yes on 1st May 2013. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4
Columbia Hills State Park submitted by Flickr on 29th Sep 2015. She Who Watches Petroglyph Image copyright: Lorene Flaming, hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API.
(View photo, vote or add a comment)
Log Text: There were no tours to the "She Who Watches" figure on the day we were visiting, but we were able to see many other examples of rock art. Well worth a visit.