Round Trip Distance: 1 mile
Difficulty: Moderate
Elevation: 6903 - 7013 feet
Cellphone: 3-5 bars
Time: 2 hrs.
Trailhead: Casa Malpais Museum
Fee: $12 ages 13-59 | $10 ages 60+ |$5 children 12 & under
Attractions: pueblo guided tour
The Casa Malpais Pueblo sits on benches below the rim of a shield volcano on land that is owned by the City of Springerville, Arizona. Belonging to the Mogollon Culture the building and occupation of the 50-60 room pueblo dates to between 1240 - 1350 AD. The site includes a great square kiva, multiple solar calendars, some petroglyphs, and an ancient staircase that leads up to the rim above the volcano that offers a splendid view of the entire pueblo. Access to the site is restricted to guided tours only, between the months of April and October. For more information and to book a tour you can visit their website.
Transportation is furnished from the museum to the trailhead. That is actually the only way to get through the locked gates to the site which is monitored by surveillance cameras for its protection.
From the trailhead the guide leads the tour up the same paths that were created by its ancient inhabitants. A little uneven ground in places is all that interrupts the otherwise smooth trails.
As the trail climbs gently up to the bench of the pueblo the tour guide points out a few of the petroglyphs, points out grinding slicks where the ancients made flour from corn and seeds, and expounds a wealth of other information about the site that you are walking amidst.
One of the highlights of the tour is the large square shaped Great Kiva. The original structure would have been completely enclosed with a roof on top of much higher walls. We were told that Native Americans still hold ceremonies in the kiva that have been attended by more than 200 individuals within its confines.
Samples of the various types of colorful pottery found at Casa Malpais remain for visitors to enjoy.
One of the more interesting aspects of the pueblo is its extensive use of solstice calendar markers.
Our guide displayed a photograph taken at midday of the summer solstice that showed a shadow perfectly bisecting this curvilinear petroglyph. Two more of this same curvilinear petroglyph are located along the same nearby cliffs.
Visitors are treated to a spectacular view of the ruins after climbing the ancient staircase that ascends up through a crack in the cliff to the mesa or rim of the volcano.
Some of the lower rooms of the pueblo were built over fissures that provided them with a basement that was cooler and well adapted for use as storerooms. After the pueblo was excavated by archeologists the rooms were reburied with these short walls left to show the outlines of the original pueblo.
On a bench below the pueblo is a circular terrace enclosure that was also used as a solar calendar where the shadow cast by the offset doorway on its west side crossed certain petroglyph images on several of the boulders within the enclosure that marked the summer and winter solstices.
One final aspect of the site is what was previously believed to have been a 'lookout' but might actually be a monument, or such, to the setting sun. (I forget the term that our tour guide used for the structure.) Going on a suggestion from the person that enlightened them about the structure they were actually able to find its counterpart on top of the mesa that was built for the same purpose for the rising sun.
The information shared by the tour guide enhances a visit to the Casa Malpais Pueblo to the point that we had to give it our highest rating. Before setting out on the tour from the museum there is also a short video where Native Americans, both spiritual leaders as well as archeologists, share even more viewpoints on Casa Malpais. A person couldn't ask for a more complete package for a tour. If you would like to see the Casa Malpais Pueblo for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.
