Took a trip down to Cedar Mesa with my 5 yr old boy and a buddy. We hit up The Citadel, Perfect Kiva in Slickhorn Canyon, The Seven Towers, and a site that my buddy and I had stumbled upon about 2 yrs ago when we were hiking accross the mesa top to the head of a canyon. I think that the site we stumbled upon is the midden to what used to be a pithouse. There are tons of pottery sherds of all kinds, pieces of flint, and 4 manos. We were also able to find charcoal remains and what I believe is the end piece of a wooden beam of the pithouse. Without digging(which is illegal) we will probably never know but it was still really cool to stumble accross the site like we did. The site was in the exact same condition as we left it 2 yrs ago. We also ended up stopping at Sego Canyon on the way home since my friend had never been there. I was really impressed by how well my son did hiking to The Citadel and Perfect Kiva. The Citadel is just under 6 miles round trip and a fairly easy mesa top hike with a little bit of scrambling to get down to The Citadel. Perfect Kiva is just under 9 miles but much more difficult. There is a very large dryfall that you have to negotiate and in the process you climb up to the top ledge of the canyon, follow it down canyon a ways, scramble back down into the canyon bottom and then scramble up the other side of the canyon to get to the alcove. Then you have to do it all over again on the way back. Another cool site we stumbled upon was as we were looking for a site in Slickhorn Canyon before we got to Perfect Kiva we found a passage way between two slabs of rock that was about 5 feet wide and about 20-30 yds long and led from the mesa top down to the first ledge in the canyon were the ruin we were looking for was located. I'm sure it was used by them to access the mesa top and may have even influenced their choice of site location. Here are some pics. I have a couple of short timelapse videos that I will add to the report later.
Huge alcove across the canyon as we hiked to The Citadel.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7107/6...db236392_b.jpg
IMG_3833.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
We could see lots of ruins across the canyon as we hiked to The Citadel.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7214/6...89b1ab1d_b.jpg
Ruins hidden in the shadows by Deadeye008, on Flickr
My boy and my buddy overlooking the canyon on the way.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7042/7...387fd939_b.jpg
IMG_3835.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
Lots of water in the potholes down there still. Even saw some snow patches still lingering down there.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7203/6...16e68637_b.jpg
IMG_3846.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
The Citadel
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7096/6...d802fbb1_b.jpg
IMG_3852.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
On the land bridge
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7136/7...c1fcc0c7_b.jpg
IMG_3857.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
Notice the rock on the left side of the picture. Looks like a monkey head to me...
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7190/6...b725c34a_b.jpg
IMG_3863.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
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IMG_3866.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
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IMG_3867.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
There were remains of two different defensive walls along the land bridge.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7099/6...0733c7bf_b.jpg
IMG_3887.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
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IMG_3888.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
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IMG_3879.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
Our campsite at Road Canyon had such a great view. We were literally right on the edge of the canyon.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7053/7...47bf4530_b.jpg
IMG_4037.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7231/6...050e3ab1_b.jpg
IMG_4059.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
Long passage way that led to the mesa top
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7053/6...2aa468a7_b.jpg
IMG_4078.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
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IMG_4081.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
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IMG_4072.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
Up on the ledge
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7036/7...2a476d34_b.jpg
IMG_4098.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
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IMG_4101.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
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IMG_4123.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
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IMG_4106.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
Lots more water
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7274/6...3cd97622_b.jpg
IMG_4131.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
The following are shots from the mesa top site we stumbled upon 2 yrs ago.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7183/6...dd8d2e4c_b.jpg
IMG_4135.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
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IMG_4137.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
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IMG_4138.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
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IMG_4139.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
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IMG_4148.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
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IMG_4156.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7056/7...470dfacc_b.jpg
IMG_4161.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
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IMG_4180.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
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IMG_4343.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7280/7...2230c43a_b.jpg
IMG_4353.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7110/6...cd90c5d3_b.jpg
IMG_4344.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
Notice the faint BCS rock art on this panel. It looks very, very similiar to the Buckhorn Wash panel.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7182/6...dd65e782_b.jpg
IMG_4362.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7090/7...4fc26277_b.jpg
IMG_4364.jpg by Deadeye008, on Flickr
