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| Hiking | 4.52 Miles |
1,200 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.52 Miles | | | |
| 1,200 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | | got rolling from the valley at 6 or 6:30 with Greg and Randy, although we made it OK its cutting it pretty close as far as light goes. I would recommend getting an earlier start or camping out there on cherry creek so you will have more time to goof around and explore at least in the winter anyway. that being said we took the normal route to coopers forks but returned via pueblo canyon, same way we did a few years ago. we did not relish the trip back up coldsprings canyon with all the boulder hopping. yes there is some boulder hopping but much less and it cuts a fair amount off the return. you have to watch to your left during the hike out for the wall of the canyon to change from rock to a steep dirt and rock ascent , at that point scramble up and you will magically be at pottery point. now going down that way might be trickier because it will be hard to determine where to start down. After my second trip to coopers fork I am certain now that it is the hardest hike of all the cliff dwellings most of the route is on again off again as far a following the trail so brush busting and boulder hopping is all part of the fun. I've been to allmost all of the dwellings in the sierra anchas and I have never been as sore as the trips to Coopers fork. This trip was to the recently documented mesa top ruin (evanshiker) that sits to the left of coopers fork cliff dwelling easily within sight of but a bit longer than a stones throw away. there seems to be 2 ways up , circle the mesa to the left and go up the back side or continue like you are going to the cliff dwelling to the right of the mesa and scramble up the hill from there. I went up the backside and down the side facing the cliff dwelling while Greg and Randy chickened out and took the easy way both ways. actually I got off trail a bit and got far enough to the left of the mesa that it was easier to bushwack up the back side rather than back track to the other route. On to the ruin. like any mesa top ruin it is in bad disrepair but was probably more impmressive than the cliff dwelling in its heyday. I believe when the fron wall was intact all the way across that the dwelling might have had 5 rooms across the rest of the ruins are harder to interpret but I suppose there might have been as many as 8 or 10 rooms total. of course all roof structures are long gone and any sign of chinking between rocks in the walls if in fact there was any is also long gone. its always worth the trip since the journey is usually most of the reason for going and it always means a lot more when the company is good. Just one more recommendation. don't do this hike in summer , we did it in October a few years ago and it really wiped us out most of it is in full sun so even at the end of december we were sweating quite a bit. we skipped going to the cliff dwelling because of the light but its not very far to hike on over there, it would be a great hike to go to both but as I stated earlier get an earlier start so you don't have to be rushed |
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