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| Hiking | 6.75 Miles |
852 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.75 Miles | 4 Hrs 29 Mns | | 1.60 mph |
| 852 ft AEG | 16 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Another trip to cinder country as I had more places I wanted to visit. I planned the first half on the low mesa overlooking Wupatki NM and the Painted Desert and then a small drop to the sandstone area near (but on the legal side of) the boundary and actually quite close to the Wupatki Visitor Center.
Like previous visits to this area I passed several significant ruins on the mesa and plenty of pottery. I was hoping that the sandstone area would also be similarly interesting and maybe even have some petroglyphs - but no dice. Scattered pottery pieces was all I saw down there.
As I was making my way back to the car I was surprised to hear voices calling me and a couple of WNM Rangers came out of the bushes. They had seen me from a distance walking (OK struggling) up the cinders to get back on the mesa top. Apparently they had driven up one of the cinder tracks that crisscross the area to find me. They knew where my car was and offered me a ride back to it. At first I declined but they were fairly insistent citing the approaching storm. I had just checked my GPS and I was 1.2mi away but I took the ride. I think their motivations were 1) checking the National Monument border looking for violators (they asked a lot of questions) 2) helping an old hiker who might get caught in the rain. |
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Route Editor
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