Round Trip Distance: 0.6 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 3671 - 3681 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 1 hr.
Trailhead: Pueblo La Plata
Fee: none
Attractions: pueblo ruins
Pueblo La Plata is located in the Agua Fria National Monument northeast of Black Canyon City, Arizona. Sitting on top of Perry Mesa, overlooking Silver Creek, Pueblo La Plata is one of the largest pueblo ruins in the area. The pueblo gets its name from the Spanish word, plata, for silver. Probably due to the difficulty in accessing most of the other sites in the Agua Fria National Monument, Pueblo La Plata is one of the few that the BLM actually mentions on their website.
To get there take the I-17 Exit 259 and follow the Bloody Basin Road for 8.9 miles and turn left at the sign for Pueblo La Plata.
Continue for 1.3 miles to the trailhead on a previously 4WD road that has been improved to more easily accommodate 2WD highway vehicles during dry weather.
From the trailhead it is a little over a quarter mile along an easy trail to the large Pueblo La Plata ruins.
For those that aren't frequent visitors to ruins it would be good to read the signs and either acquaint yourself for the first time, or refresh your memory, on the laws that protect them and the importance of helping to preserve them. Basically it is illegal (and unethical) to do any excavating of your own, do anything that causes damage to the site, or to remove any artifacts, including shards of pottery even though it might seem like there are ever so many.
What you see now when you visit the ruins are piles of rubble outlining former rooms of the pueblo and an occasional section of wall where the stones are still stacked flat one on top of the other.
At the trailhead kiosk there is a good artists interpretation of how pueblos looked at the time of their occupation. Constructed without doors or windows they were entered by ladders through holes in the roof. For extra security the ladders could be drawn up afterwards. Many pueblos also were more than 1 story high, especially in their central core.
Numbered post show that the trail around the pueblo was meant to be interpretive in nature although when we made our visit there were no pamphlets to explain their meaning.
It's always fun to take note of the various types of pottery that were used at a site. Be sure to leave them there for others to enjoy as well.
You might also notice one of the broken grinding slicks laying about upon which corn and seeds were ground into flour.
