Indian Mesa is one of the ruins closest to Phoenix in our Native American ruins book and still we weren’t able to see it till today. The major reason is that it is closed from December 15th to June 15th, the prime hiking time in the area, to protect the nesting bald eagles nearby. But today the temperatures are low enough that we dare to try the hike and lo and behold the first gate is open and we can drive to the large parking lot, from here it is time to go on foot as the next gate is closed.
It is a bit surprising that it is closed really as there is another large parking lot afterwards with a large camping area and the road, even afterwards, is quite well maintained.
To our surprise a ranger is passing by, however by looking inside the car it seems more that he is taking his family for a stroll through the area in the official car. We continue on foot crossing the dry Agua Fria, we weren’t sure if the lake is low enough that we will be able to do this but we shouldn’t have worried.
We are quite happy about the road actually, we expected to hike through the river bed and here is a perfectly serviceable empty dirt road going in our general direction. We will be there in no time at all, we think, quite wrongly.
This area is quite funny for us when we read the signs. All of them are talking about no tresspassing and no parking on a road which no car can reach legally. We assume that this was a more busy road way back when the lake was higher but that is not true anymore.
The maintained road deadends into a huge parking lot. A rave could be held here, or a good size festival, we really are curious since when the area is abandoned.
To us again it seems that this was linked to the lake. The signs on the closures reference boats but the lake is quite far downstream at this point in time so it has to be some time ago. But then the signs look newish?
We see some movement in the river bed and then the shapes resolve themselves in two coyotes leisurely moving away from us. We are quite happy that they do that as we don’t necessarily want to meet them close up. The trail now goes through some burrs, the road is a bit rougher but still passable.
That changes as it actually turns towards the river bed and starts to disappear. And we have to go up towards the mountains, not sure if we missed a spur or something. But in the end through the burrs it is until we find the old road on the other side of the burr field.
Using it we start climbing towards Indian Mesa with some nice views of the river bed. From here we are turning away from the river and inland following really old roads that are in bad shape. At least we find some cows nearby that really seem completely unimpressed by the humans passing nearby.
We can see our goal in front of us, it seems impossible to climb on the mesa really but we are more curious about the car in front of us, who dared to bring a car here and where is the person?
However as we approach it becomes clear it is an abandoned car, a Subaru, and it is also clear that some time has passed since it was abandoned. Likely no one can afford to send a tow truck here to pick it up. We enjoy exploring these old relics, other people enjoy smashing them unfortunately.
The climb towards the saddle where the foot trail towards the mesa starts is quite difficult, we wonder how the car made it down to the spot where we found it. In fact one of us even takes a fall as the rocks below the foot give way, luckily nothing bad.
And then we reach the saddle and the start of the trail helpfully marked by a cairn. The climb is quite steep but the trail is in reasonably good shape and soon we are close to the cliffs, what’s next though?
The trail actually takes as behind the cliff and there is a small chute that we can use to climb to the top and to the ruins, yay we are on top of the world! From here we can see the lake, it is far away as well as the signs of civilization near Pleasant Lake.
We spend about half hour exploring the ruins. They are quite extensive with a house with well preserved walls being the main attraction.
We enter it and examine the many shards collected by other people as well take a few photos, the wall is almost five feet tall and probably the best preserved in this extensive ruin.
We continue exploring towards one end of the mesa where we find another building with smaller walls. This we assume was the guard house, looking for interlopers along the Agua Fria river.
We sit on a few stones and eat from our provisions and as we do so we notice that a circle of stones that we didn’t give a second look was actually highlighting a collection of pottery shards. They are really everywhere which is quite exciting.
Now we return to the main house, buoyed by the sun that is highlighting everything beautifully. It is quite scenic and we really enjoy the area and the ruins.
From the main house there are multiple ruins, maybe a wall running down the mesa, it would have been exciting to have a sign here showing how the village looked during its heyday. At the other tip of the cliffs there are a lot more rooms, one assumptions would be that the village was extending from here to the main house and the wall and then there was the guard house outside the walls.
The entrance was especially protected with a few guardhouses on both sides. There is also a perfectly round circle, we are wondering if that is ancient or more modern?
And then it is time to descend, we want to arrive at the burrs before the night falls so we can pass without too much trouble. Still we have to stop multiple times to enjoy the breathtaking views.
Looking back west towards Indian Mesa is especially scenic, it is almost unbelievable to us that we were able to climb to the top of that forbidding outcrop of rock.
We make it safely though the burrs and even see a few burros nearby that are gathering for the night, three of them. We pass quite close to them but they make no movement and we escape their wrath. Soon after in complete darkness as we walk with our headlamps we find also a Blonde Tarantula which is moving slowly across the road, really cool! And then we are back to the car for the return trip home that luckily is uneventful after such a beautiful day.
