This is a state park I have stayed at before. It is just a couple of miles off the I-40 freeway that goes past Winslow, AZ. I needed a place to stay between Laughlin, AZ, and City of Rocks State Park in New Mexico, so I stopped here for one night and visited the ruins in the morning before I left the area.
The ruins are the remains of at least two villages occupied by the Hopi from the 1200's to the 1300's. The ranger told me there were obviously ancient Indians living there for thousands of years because they have found large spear points that would have been used on ice age animals, but no dwellings have been found.
This is an interesting place because wherever you walk, you can look down and see pieces of pottery and chert from which spear points and tools were knapped. The ranger said that before the state took over the property, people had come in with bulldozers and diggers of various types. He said they estimated that over 75 cubic yards of ancient material was removed during that period. In any case, there were two very large villages here, so lots of broken pottery still left wherever you put your foot down, which means you should stay on the paths.
This also explains why there are almost no existing walls--everything original was dug up! Anyway, here is an image of the first village--Homolovi I.
About all that is left is this rise or ridge in the distance.
Visitors have piled up pottery shards, but you really should not be doing this. In any case, you can see the various types of pots that were made.
I bent over and picked up this piece of chert from which pieces had been chipped off about 700 years ago! And I did put it back exactly where I had found it.
To the left of the photo below, you can see the floodplain of the Little Colorado River. There would have been farms here instead of the brush you see now.
More pottery shards.
And more.
Another piece of knapped chert.
They were allowing only one person or one family in the visitor center at one time. It is cold this time of year because the state park is at 5,000 feet, so the campground was only about 30% filled also. And people were very good about wearing masks. Very safe time to travel via RV.
You can match up the pottery with the shards piled up on the rocks at the ruins sites.
After the visitor center, I drove to Homolovi II, the second village ruins.
This map shows how really large this village was. With 1,300 rooms, there had to be room for 1,000 people and for storage of grain grown near the river.
Lady walking around pointed out some wild horses in the distance. I had to use my telephone, so not crystal clear.
OK, I am all caught up with postings. Will try to keep up a little better. Next posting will no doubt be City of Rocks State Park in New Mexico.
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