Valley of the Sun 2016: Visit to the Tonto National Monument

It has been a busy week both in politics and more importantly, our continued adventures in the Valley of the Sun. On Saturday we picked up our friends Keith and Nancy from their RV resort and headed off to visit the Tonto National Monument. Saturday was "Fee Free" at the Monument in celebration of Arizona Archeology and Heritage Awareness Month. The Monument, operated by the National Parks Service hosted Heritage Days on Saturday and Sunday.

What is the Tonto National Monument? Perched on the side of a mountain are 2 shallow caves containing dwellings dating back 700 years. A better description is "Cliff Dwellings". There is a lower dwelling and an upper dwelling. The upper dwelling is a bit larger but essentially both contain the remains of dwellings used by the Salado people. Salado people being those of the Salt River. The Monument was established by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907 in an effort to preserve and protect the sites from vandals and pothunters.

Dana, Keith, Nancy and I arrived at the Monument Headquarters at 9:00 a.m. Unfortunately, Nancy was unable to hike up to the dwellings as the night before she had injured a toe on her left foot. We left Nancy in the Headquarters visitors centre where she bonded with fellow Parks Service employees while Dana, Keith and I headed to the lower dwellings. This was a short 25 minute walk. On the way up I took some landscape photos. The sun was at the perfect angle. The cactus, yellow flowers of the Brittle Bush and the red hillside seemed to glow. We had a look at the dwellings, talked to a couple of Park staff and headed back down to find the trail to the upper dwellings.

For the hike to the upper dwellings I put the 400mm lens on the camera. I did this as we saw a number of birds on the hike to the lower dwellings and I missed a few good opportunities at some of the local birds. I was not about to miss any more. Murphy must have been on our team as we got only a couple of glimpses of birds on the hike up to and down from the upper dwellings. That hike, including a visit to the dwellings lasted 1 1/2 hours.

When we got back to the parking area we decided to have our picnic lunch. It was at this time that I finally saw a couple of birds. Photos below.

Overall the visit to the Tonto Monument was fantastic. I have read about cliff dwellings and seen shows on television about them but I had not seen them for myself. Fascinating! To think that up to 100 people inhabited each of these dwellings is amazing. The information on the Salado people indicate when they inhabited the dwellings but there is a great deal that we do not know about them. For example, why did they create the dwellings high on a hill, many miles from the Salt River and perhaps even more important, where did they go and why did they leave.

I am including a few photos from the day. All of these photos are from the trail to the lower dwellings, or of the lower dwellings themselves. I had the big lens on the camera when we were at the upper dwellings and I did not take any landscape photos there.

In summary it was great day. If you get the chance to visit the Tonto National Monument I don't think you will be disappointed, even if you have to pay the admission.

Enjoy the photos.