Palatki and Honanki - and no, they are not east European musicians!

November 28 (Tuesday)

We went to visit the heritage sites of Palatki and Honanki today. These are Sinaguan Indian ruins from the people that inhabited the area from about 900 AD to 1300 AD. We have visited many of these sites since we came to Arizona about a month ago. They are all similar but never the same and each one is as interesting as any.

We phoned ahead for a reservation on a tour of Palatki. Due to the fragility and importance of the site the Parks Service controls the flow of people by having you register in a group and be lead by a docent.

The road to the sites (route 525) is a bit rough in places. The gravel road takes you up to the ruins. First was Palatki. 

Lots of boondockers along this road.

Interesting that this site contains Petroglyphs (stone carving) and Pictographs (stone painting). Some of the petroglyphs are very ancient and may go back several thousand years, just as they did at V bar V (see a previous post).

The logs in the windows are original. Over 700 years old. Arizona weather helps!

 With a view like this no wonder the Sinaguan felt safe here.

View of the valley from the ruins.

Some samples of the petroglyphs and pictographs. What do they mean? Lots of theories, but your guess is as good as mine!

Notice that these pictographs are black. They were originally white but the fires that burned in the shelters melted the animal fat that was part of the paint and left behind charcoal coloring. Interesting process.

The homesteader built this stone shelter to live in while he worked on his more comfortable wooden home (which is now the visitor center).

In the late 1800's this site was homesteaded by a widower that planted fruit trees and crops. There are still pomegranate, apple, pear and a sort of fig type tree still growing on the property.

Pomegranate tree

Apple tree with a fig-type tree in the background.

This little guy was keeping an eye on us.

  

We continued on to the Honanki ruins about four miles further up the road. You need to check in at the small shack at the entrance, but after that you are on your own. A 3/4 mile loop trail takes you up to the ruins and the petroglyphs.

If I were a Sinaguan.....I would choose to live here!

The road to Honanki

A window filled in. Renovations were the order of the day just like today!

Then back to the campground along the twisty gravel road.

That was Our View From Here.......

Prescott

November 27 (Monday)

Today we headed to Prescott to look around and do some shopping.

First stop was Verizon. After a week of little to no internet service at the Campground I followed the advice of others (thanks Deb and Dianne) and bought a Verizon Jetpack and an Unlimited data plan. Expensive? Yes. Worth it? Time will tell.

One thing I've noticed with my dealings with Verizon is that the answers you get seem to vary with the Verizon Rep. Even the pricing is different. I think I finally landed on a plan and price that meets my needs.

Next stop was lunch at IHOP. We don't have one in Red Deer and we try to hit one when we can.

Then it was off to Costco. We needed meat and we like to get that at Costco when we can. Their porkchops are just right for the barbeque. Nice and thick. As usual we needed up buying more than we needed and $200 dollars later we got out of there.

We took a drive around the north end of the city by the Granite Dells and Watson Lake. (Short on pictures today) The wind was howling and it just didn't seem a good idea for a walk, so back in the truck and we headed for Jerome.

That road is very scenic, assuming the driver has a chance to look around. The road is very twisty and hilly. Lots of hairpins. Thankfully not a lot of traffic today. This was our second trip to Jerome. Much quieter here this time, but it was too late to visit the Historic Park. Maybe next time.

Yes, it was a twisty road!

That was Our View From Here.....

Just wine-ing today

November 26 (Sunday)

We took a break from looking at Sinaguan ruins today and tried out some more modern twists on a very old craft…….wine making! We took a drive up to Page Springs area just south of Sedona. There are several wineries along this road. Very nice locations…..but honestly…..overpriced Yuppie traps. I remember a time when wine tasting was free in hopes the Winery would sell a few bottles of their best wine. Today…..they want $11 or $12 for a flight of 5 wines. Just a taste of each. Then the full bottle prices of $40 or more. Yikes! Walmart sells a whole box for $14. :-) Pretty area though, and the views were free!

So we visited a few and had a nice walk through them, but we decided to head back to Camp Verde and try one more…..the Clear Creek Winery just a couple of miles from the Campground. This turned out to be a good decision. We were about the only ones there. The sommelier was very knowledgeable about wine, and wine growing in Arizona. Their flight was only $8 and consisted of six pretty large samples. We ended up buying three bottles of very good wine from him. They were $26 - $30 each, but we felt that was a pretty good deal.

That was Our View From Here......