Round Trip Distance: 0.8 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Elevation: 3495 - 3635 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 2 hrs.
Trailhead: Pueblo Pato
Fee: none
Attractions: Petroglyphs
The Perry Tank Petroglyphs are located in the Agua Fria National Monument northeast of Black Canyon City, Arizona. The site covers a stretch of a north branch of Perry Tank Canyon that lies just below Batt Tank and directly west of the Pueblo Pato trailhead. Hundreds of petroglyphs can be found on boulders and cliff faces at all levels from the creek to the opposite mesa.
To get there take I-17 Exit 259 and follow the Bloody Basin Road for about 11.3 miles to where you will see a kiosk on the right. Turn right here onto 9014. The roads in the area that begin with 90 are those that are within the Agua Fria National Monument. Once they leave the monument and enter the Tonto National Forest the 90 is dropped so for instance 9014 becomes FR 14.
Follow 9014 for 1.8 miles and turn right onto 9025. From this point on you will need a high clearance 4WD or other OHV type of conveyance.
Near the 2.2 mile point 9025 passes the New Windmill and makes a short climb up a very ruff hill with outcropping basalt boulders to navigate over.
From the New Windmill continue for another 1.9 miles and go right. At the next fork in 1.4 miles go left and drive the remaining quarter mile to where you will find plenty of room to park near one of the powerline towers. There are several signs here that read 'No Vehicles' beyond this point but they have probably been run over and are laying flat on the ground.
We did this hike as a loop by following a trail toward Batt Tank that runs next to one of the powerline towers.
This is one of the first panels of images that is a little below a life sized, long legged, and long bodied image of a sheep.
Some of the images are on boulders below the cliff. Be sure to check all sides of the boulders to find them all.
In this photo there is one of the long bodied sheep, or deer, on the upper left and a couple panels of geometric designs.
Fringed circles with either faces or designs show up in a couple of places.
Here is another one.
Using the antlers to tell a story. Interestingly the antlers also form a circle.
Here's a closer look at some circles within a circle.
Here's a circle with maybe a sun and moon in the middle. Some of these look like decorated shields.
Various reticulated shapes.
This panel has a couple of turtles and another deer with a wild set of antlers.
Here is an atlatl in the lower left with a lot of other images.
A small rock with more than a dozen cupules pounded into some sort of pattern.
Multiple grinding slicks can be found scattered along the cliff suggesting that it was a nice place to sit out in the sun while doing your work.
A few water images are found down close to the creek. We thought that they might refer to some type of water magic to propitiate the gods for sufficient rainfall.
There are a lot more images down along the creek as well as a few more grinding slicks.
This was just a sample of the many petroglyphs that are packed into the short distance of the canyon that we hiked. The canyon goes on all the way down to the Agua Fria River and there are undoubtedly a lot more petroglyphs along the way. We've even heard of a ruin that is supposedly down near the confluence of the canyon. We probably also missed a lot of images in the area that we did hike. If you would like to see the Perry Tank Petroglyphs for yourself all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.
