Jackrabbit Ruin

GPS planning file and map.

Description: The Jackrabbit Ruin is located just outside of Winslow, Arizona on the south side of Interstate 40. Not much can be seen from Google Earth. 

Directions: To get there, take I-40 Exit 257 and instead of going toward Homolovi State Park go south. Follow what looks like a 4WD road that heads east paralleling the interstate. After 2.4 miles turn right and go another ¾ of a mile. The ruin is supposedly somewhere in that area.

Included with this post is the GPS file and map that we plan to use for our first visit. If you don't want to wait for us to get around to it feel free to try the GPS file and map for yourself. With no guarantee, of course, but they most often prove valuable for us.

Flat Top Butte Ruins

GPS planning file and map.

Description: The Flat Top Butte Ruins are located north of Winslow, Arizona on Tribal Land. The ruins are clearly visible from Google Earth. 

Directions: To get there, take I-40 Exit 257 and drive north on AZ-87 for 18.5 miles. Turn right onto N603 and drive another 8.5 miles as N603 transitions into N958. You should be able to enter the trailhead coordinates, 35.18772, -110.33320, into your driving app for turn-by-turn directions.

Included with this post is the GPS file and map that we plan to use for our first visit. If you don't want to wait for us to get around to it feel free to try the GPS file and map for yourself. With no guarantee, of course, but they most often prove valuable for us.

Rock Art Ranch

GPS planning file and map.

Rock Art Ranch is located 15 miles southeast of Winslow, Arizona. This is a private site that is owned by the Baird Family who charge a per person rate, that seems to vary, for one of the daily (except Sunday) tours they offer. When you search it on the internet it says that the site is permanently closed. To find out for sure or to arrange a tour the number is 1-928-386-5047.

To get there you would drive from I-40 Exit 253 south on AZ-99 for 8.8 miles and turn east onto Territorial/McLaws. Instructions were probably given to meet your guide at the corner of Territorial and Bell Cow Road where you would be escorted through the locked gates to the entrance to Chevelon Canyon where the ruins and rock art are found.

Included with this post is the GPS file and map that we plan to use for our first visit. If you don't want to wait for us to get around to it feel free to try the GPS file and map for yourself. With no guarantee, of course, but they most often prove valuable for us.

Onyx Bridge

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 5 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Elevation: 5454 - 5787 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 2 hrs. 30 mins.
Trailhead: Painted Desert Inn
Fee: $20/vehicle
Attractions: Petrified wood, petroglyphs

The Onyx Bridge trail is located in the Petrified Forest National Park near Holbrook, Arizona. The trail begins near the Painted Desert Inn in the northern section of the park. From there the trail drops down into the Painted Desert where it travels across Lithodendron Wash to the Onyx Bridge site. This post takes a slight detour en route that leads to some interesting petroglyphs.

Homolo'vi II

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 0.5 -1.3 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 4840 - 4946 feet
Cellphone: 2-4 bars
Time: 1 hr.
Trailhead: Homolovi II
Fee: $7/vehicle
Attractions: Ancestral Puebloan ruins, petroglyphs, pottery sherds

The Homolovi II ruin is located in the Homolovi State Park near Winslow, Arizona. Homolovi (huh-MALL-uh-vee) is a Hopi word that means 'place of the little hills'. Several of the trail signs offer contradictory information about the number of rooms that the Homolovi II site once contained. One sign has the number at around 800 rooms housing several thousand people and another has it at around 1200 rooms with 750 to 1000 people. The site did have 3 plazas and possibly 40 kivas. The rooms ranged from single story up to 2 to 3 stories. The large village must have seemed like quite the metropolis in its heyday.

Tsu'vo Loop Trail

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 0.5 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 84840 - 4896 feet
Cellphone: 2-4 bars
Time: 30 mins.
Trailhead: Tsu'Vo
Fee: $7/vehicle
Attractions: petroglyphs

The Tsu'vo trail is located in the Homolovi State Park near Winslow, Arizona. Tsu'vo is the Hopi phrase that means 'path of the rattlesnake'. A warning sign at the trailhead makes mention of venomous reptiles and insects. At the time of the visit for this post it was a chilly winter day with temperatures in the low 40's F so there wasn't much of anything moving around other than a few people.

Homolo'vi Sunset Cemetary

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 1 mile
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 4872 - 4908 feet
Cellphone: 2-4 bars
Time: 30 mins.
Trailhead: Homolovi State Park Visitor Center
Fee: $7/vehicle
Attractions: Pioneer Mormon Cemetery

The Sunset Cemetery is located in the Homolovi State Park near Winslow, Arizona. A short trail leads to the site which is an early Mormon pioneer cemetery with gravestones dating back to the late 1800's. The cemetery sits on a hill overlooking the Little Colorado River where the pioneers were endeavoring to build a settlement named Sunset Fort. The fort was one of four such settlements being built in the area by the pioneers that were sent to the area by Brigham Young in 1876. Brigham City was one of the other sites located on the opposite side of the river while Obed and Joseph City were being established further upstream toward the present day city of Holbrook.

Homolo'vi I Ruin

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 0.5 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 4820 - 4847 feet
Cellphone: 2-4 bars
Time: 30 mins.
Trailhead: Homolovi I
Fee: $7/vehicle
Attractions: Ancestral Puebloan ruins, pottery shards

The Homolovi I Ruin is located in the Homolovi State Park near Winslow, Arizona. Homolovi (huh-MALL-uh-vee) is a Hopi word that means 'place of the little hills'. Situated along the Little Colorado River the location was home, during the 13th and 14th century, for an ancestral Puebloan people called the Hisat'sinom or Anasazi. Sinom is the Hopi word for 'people' and in this case it forms the conjunction that for the Hopi refers to 'the people that lived long ago'. It is the same term that refers also to the inhabitants of Wupatki, Walnut Canyon, Tuzigoot and many, many other anciently occupied places.