Up onto Horse Mesa from the Jacks Canyon trailhead
1 HORSE MESA
2 The weather has been rainy, so mud is predicted for today
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4 Starting out on the Jacks Canyon trail, we encounter evicnce of the Barranca Fire.
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6 An old home renovated
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11 We leave the public trail at a place where rocky outcroppings on the side of the mesa give us a path up the slope
12 Cathedral Rock comes into view
13 Looking at Village of Oak Creek, from Castle Rock to the south
14 THe upper end of Jacks Canyon
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22 On top of the mesa, a good break spot
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24 We set off across the mesa
25 Approaching the Fortress
26 This Sinagua ruin is a large pit house and fortification which may have been added to by the Apaches in their mis-19th century battle with General Crook
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28 The pictograph panel
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31 Potsherds have been freshly exposed by the rain
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33 Multiple lichen species on one rock face
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35 A hole for firing arrows through the wall
36 On the Woods Canyon wall, a granary
37 Both Dry Beaver Creek and Rattlesnake Canyon, normally dry, are running
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40 Pit houses
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54 The 'main gate' in the fortification wall
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56 This small, soft growth was unique in the piled rocks
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59 An ancient lava flow weathering into columnar basalt. This was a major source of rock for the Fortress
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62 Elk scat. We saw sign of large elk in the area.
