Horse Mesa Nov 16
Up onto Horse Mesa from Jacks Canyon trailhead, across to the Fortress, and return down the side of the mesa.
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HORSE MESA
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The climb up is mostly on the Hot Loop trail
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We turn off the trail to continue directly up onto the mesa
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Views of Village of Oakcreek open up as we go
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Wild Horse Mesa, which got a name of its own when a Western was shot there in 1947, based on the Zane Grey novel
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A hedgehog cactus
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On top of the mesa, we stay off trail and rockhop
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Facing Woods Canyon in the distance, with the Sinagua fortress on the right
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Woods Canyon
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Time for lunch
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Now we climb the ruin
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The original Sinagua wall aound the base of the fortress
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From on top, we can look down into Woods Canyon and a watchpoint in the cliffs below
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A closer look at the watchpoint
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A complex of pit houses
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Nineteenth-century walls built atop the ruin during the Yavapai-Apace war
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Basalt from this old lava flow was quarried for some of the construction
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Climbing to the pictographs nearby
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An elk below, a deer above
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Heading back across the mesa
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Starting down
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Looking down at Pine Valley as our track turns left to a point just out of the picture
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Courthouse Butte and Cathedral Rock
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A remnant of the Barranca burn
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