Round Trip Distance: 2.3 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 3648 - 3690 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 2 hrs. 30 mins.
Trailhead: Pueblo Pato
Fee: none
Attractions: Pueblo ruins, petroglyphs
The Pueblo Pato Group, aka Perry Tank Group, is located in the Agua Fria National Monument northeast of Black Canyon City, Arizona. The group of 3 pueblos includes some petroglyphs, pottery scatter, and a few grinding slicks. The site, which is on Perry Mesa overlooking Perry Tank Canyon, gets its name from a nearby petroglyph of a duck.
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.
From the trailhead you have the option of following the faint road to the next set of towers before getting on the single track trail or getting on the single track trail right from the get-go. The trail might be a little faint at first but you can use the boulder in this photo as a reference for where it branches off of the road. When we were there the trail was getting enough use to be easy to follow.
After hiking for just over a half mile you should be able to see the mound of Ruin 3 about an hundred feet or so off to your left. Like all of the pueblos in the area the rooms are mostly blown full of dirt. Every so often you will find intact sections of walls that are visible.
Most of the ruins in the area also have large amounts of pottery scatter spread out in and around them. Some of the fragments will be as large as your hand. In this photo you will notice a couple of broken grinding slicks. Grinding slicks are also very common although most of them are probably found in boulders around the ruins. Be sure to leave all artifacts where you find them. It is illegal to remove them and it spoils the site for others.
A quarter mile or so beyond Ruin 3 is the main pueblo mound which near as we can tell had over 60 rooms.
A person might get a better impression from looking at a satellite view of the ruins as to their size and number of rooms. A lot of pueblos have rooms that are more than 1 story high but the basic layout is still apparent.
Out on a point above Perry Tank Canyon you can see where a lot of effort was put into building a wall that may have broadened the short peninsula but also made it easier to defend by making it difficult to climb up from below at that spot.
Quite a few petroglyphs can be found on the boulders just below the top of the mesa between the main pueblo and Perry Tank Canyon.
If you poke around enough you might be able to find this interesting face looking back at you.
Looking over the side into the canyon you should be able to spot a large pool of water below a spillover. There are quite a few petroglyphs down in that area but they are easier to get to from the Rattlesnake House side of the canyon.
You will want to allow a little over an hour to drive 9025 from 9014 to the trailhead. For parts of it you are bouncing over basalt baby heads that make it slow and a bit tedious. Fortunately there are enough smoother sections to speed it up a bit. If you bother to drive here at all you will want to explore the petroglyphs just west of the trailhead that are in the north branch of Perry Tank Canyon just below Batt Tank and if the days are long enough you might also be able to squeeze in the Baby Canyon Group. As far as the Pueblo Pato Group goes, if you would like to see it for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.
