Published January 17, 2023, for State 48 A2Z
Arizona has a good number of Native American ruins, archeological, and heritage sites that help us learn and understand the life of the pre-history desert dwellers that came before us. While other nearby archeological sites such as Montezuma Castle (Camp Verde) and Tuzigoot (Clarkdale) seem to be the more well-known sites, tucked away in a remote area of Sedona’s Red Rock Country, are a couple of other cliff dwelling sites that also provide us with a close-up look at what life was like for the12th to 14th century Sinagua desert dwellers.
For this week’s trip, we head to the Palatki Heritage Site in Sedona to check out this sandstone cliff dwelling and rock art site. I have visited Sedona many times since moving to Arizona in 2007 and had never heard of this heritage site before 2022. We found it online when searching and decided to add it to our blog list. In addition to Palatki, Honanki Heritage Site is another location to visit in Sedona and one that we will be covering in the next week or two.
As mentioned above, both Palatki and its nearby sister site Honanki are in a relatively remote area of Sedona and nestled in the cliffs of Sedona’s Red Canyon ravine. The last 7-miles of the trip will be on a primitive (dirt) forest service road that is shared with OHVs. It can be slightly rocky at points but travel by mini-van and SUV is very doable, as is travel by car. I would be extra cautious driving it in a car though. Just plan on those 7 miles taking about 30 minutes to traverse. The drive pays off though as you will see some amazing views along the way with plenty of areas to pull off and park to enjoy the scenery.
Palatki and Honanki are the largest cliff dwelling sites in the area and are believed to have been built and occupied by the Sinagua people from roughly 1150CE to 1350CE. The first recorded descriptions of both archeological sites occurred around the turn of the 20th century by Dr. Jesse Walter Fewkes, a famed archeologist with the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC. The site names were given by Fewkes using the Hopi term meaning Red House (Palatki) and Badger House (Honanki). The Hopi people did not have words for these sites.
At Palatki, you will find two trails to hike. One trail will take you up to the cliff dwellings and the second trail takes you to a rock art grotto that provides shelter for the pictographs that were created by every native culture to occupy these parts of the Verde Valley. Each trail is roughly ¼ mile each way and is not wheelchair accessible.
Much of the pictographs were created by the Sinagua people, but some of the rock art predates the actual cliff dwellings and is believed to be from the Archaic Period, and are believed to be between 3,000 and 6,000 years old. One of the things I enjoyed about Palatki was that you were able to go up to the actual cliff dwellings, while the backdrop of the red rock cliffs makes for stunning photos as well.
Photos
The Palatki site houses two separate pueblos, indicating that two families or clans of Sinagua possibly resided here together. The circular shape pictographs located above the eastern pueblo have been decoded by archeologists as clan or kin symbols.
The US Forestry Service currently manages Palatki Heritage Site under the Red Rock Pass program. While the actual site is free of charge, a Red Rock Pass, or an America The Beautiful Pass is necessary to park. You can also purchase a Red Rocks Pass from the parking lot kiosk. Additionally, the site has a small visitor center and bookstore that is operated by the Arizona Natural History Association.
Tours of the cliff dwellings and grotto are limited to a max of 10-people at a time, due to the actual space available at the dwelling sites, which are relatively small. As a result, reservations are required before visiting. The site is open 7-days a week from 9:30 am to 3:00 pm, except for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The Dwellings and Grotto tours are available every 30-minutes and will last approximately one and a half hours.
To learn more about Palatki Heritage Site, please visit their pages at the US Forest Service’s web page or at their Sedona Verde Valley page. Please note that pets are not allowed past the parking lot.
That’ll wrap things up for this week. As always, thanks for reading, stay safe, and happy travels. Be sure to like and follow us on social media (links below), share our blog posts, and feel free to give us your feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Peace!
All content is © 2022-2023, Larry Nader & Larry Nader Photography & Art
State 48 A2Z Social Media Links
Larry Nader Photography & Art Social Media Links
Our Online Art Stores
Shop these sites to select our photography and digital art printed on your choice of wall art mediums, or on clothing, household items, office items, and more.
Comments