Round Trip Distance: 0.1 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Elevation: 6040 - 6056 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 30 mins.
Trailhead: 35.25734, -111.36231
Fee: none
Attractions: ruins
Just north of Winona, Arizona there are 8 ruins that are located in the vicinity of San Francisco Wash. Four of the ruins are on National Forest land, 2 are on Arizona Trust Land, and 2 appear to be on private property. The site that we have labeled as Ruin 6 consists of a handful of pueblo style rooms that were built like nests in a prominent outcrop of basalt.
To get to the area take I-40 Exit 211 and go west on the Townsend/Winona Road for 2.2 miles and turn right onto the Leupp Road, CR 505. Follow that for 5.5 miles and turn right onto FR 9128Q. There are a few primitive campsites or places to park a trailer near the turnoff.
Stay to the right where the road under the power lines splits off on the left.
As the road drops into the valley the outcrop with the ruins can be seen on the left. At the first fork go to the left. As the road leads past the site there will be another short spur road that doesn't show up on maps that leads right up to the outcrops. Unfortunately, entering the GPS coordinates for the trailhead doesn't get you good directions but they do seem to auto correct okay the closer you get to the site until you get to the short spur road that leads right up to the outcrop for which driving apps are totally unaware of but by which at that point you can visually see for yourself.
There are 2 rocky outcrops with a neat little gap between them. All of the ruins are on the back, or north, side of the larger outcrop on the left.
With the stones that make up the walls of each individual room being of the same color as to the rest of the mountain the little nested rooms blend in completely with their surroundings.
Scrambling around in the rubble is a little precarious while trying to take photos.
This room took advantage of a natural flat spot that was right up against a wall of rock. Of course, the flat bottoms of each of the rooms may have been artificially constructed by caring the loose cinders up from the base of the outcrops, where they are almost like banks of sand, and spreading them out to make a smooth floor for each room. That might be more likely than supposing that all the conveniently located flat spots occurred naturally.
Standing in one room you can see 2 more terraced above it with the highest room being nestled up against the top of the outcrop.
This room has one more built above it. As you climb up to where you can see into each room you can see how smooth the floors appear. Considering how on the outside of the walls all you have is a loose pile of boulders it does seem like the floors were artificially filled and smoothed.
Some pottery can be found in places. Most of the shards have probably fallen down between the rocks.
We thoroughly enjoyed exploring what we have arbitrarily labeled as Ruin 6 where the rooms really do seem like little nests built above the floor of the valley. If you would like to see it for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.
