Exploring Ancient Trails: Off-Road Quest for Hohokam Ruins in Phoenix Foothills | Arizona

[@aerialzona6003]

I grew up out in the New River area close to these ruins. I used to hike to them from my house. A little farther to the east is a small hill with lots of boulders and loads of petroglyphs. Its sad that when I watch your video I didnt see any pottery. That whole site used to be littered with pottery

[@CactusAtlas]

It's sad. Even when you see the collections people place somewhere. You just know it's not where it used to be and loses meaning. 😞

[@thomasandrews8033]

Nice video, Glen! We 4wheel this area frequently and can drive you right up to a ruin site that makes Sears Kay look small. Also a huge petroglyph field. Would be happy to take you there.

[@CactusAtlas]

Not surprising! That whole area has a lot of history from communities in the past.

[@jkarnas641]

The Sonoran desert is a beautiful green from all the rain.

[@CactusAtlas]

It is. It's always so strange to see it so very green each year given how it looks the rest of the time. 😅

[@RobinFagan-f1k]

Each video I watch I think it is the best until I see the next one.

[@CactusAtlas]

Aww, man. 😳😊 Thank you so very much.

[@lauraslanesvanlifetravels]

I'll tell ya, hiking is the best thing I've ever started doing. I HATE exercise, I mean HATE, but hiking? Love it! Trust me, you want to get yourself in shape before you get to be my size...and age. I'm 48 and so overweight. I push myself now to go hiking, it's the one thing I have found that I actually can do still and enjoy (altho I'm stuck right now, cuz my brakes need fixed, can't go anywhere, which sucks!) I do use a hiking stick, which may help you, not that you needed help...but lots of hikers use them...just a small suggestion. It helps so much just with balance and any backaches, helps me tremendously...this was cool and I was proud of you for taking that hike way up there Glen! (I can never remember if its 1 N or 2 lol)

[@CactusAtlas]

Glenn loves hiking. Just hasn't been able to do much of it lately. That and still really enjoying the use of the truck. 😅 As for me... he can keep the hiking. Flat pavement for me unless I want to tear up my foot again. Ehlers-Danlos and hiking are a bad, bad mix. 🤣

[@lauraslanesvanlifetravels]

@@CactusAtlas I'm not sure what Ehlers-Danlos is but if it causes you pain then yea, we all have things we like or can or can't do. I feel the opposite, when I walk on a flat surface my back aches more and my sciatica is bothered and my hips/waist area feels pressure w/in 5 mins and I am in pain and have to sit down. When I hike I can go longer/further w/out sitting down, it's so weird! lol...Hopefully he gets to do it more if he loves it!

[@CactusAtlas]

It's basically loose joints and connective tissue. I roll my ankles and bruise easily, have poor balance. Stepped off a curb once and tore the ligaments holding my bones together and dislocated a couple metatarsals in my mid-foot. Now I have arthritis in that foot. Fun stuff. 😂 One of the biggest reasons I don't go out with Glenn a lot.

[@lauraslanesvanlifetravels]

@@CactusAtlas oh hun... I'm so sorry! That sounds really awful..well at least you get to go out with him sometimes 🙂💜 and can enjoy being in that truck and out there with him, I have no one to go enjoy anything with... Hope that somehow someway maybe you can find something that will help you with it... there are lots of natural stuff out there that may help, just a suggestion, if you haven't looked into it. I know that sometimes we don't think of natural cures because we get big pharma pushing prescriptions on us a lot and not natural stuff.

[@DeborahFlorian-gy6lw]

​@I have Ehlers-Danlos too, it's no walk in the park. Loose joints causing impinged nerves. Bad balance which can be grossly misinterpreted. Interesting to know you too are part of the tribe, Amy!CactusAtlas

[@willis4v]

Loved it! Can't wait to see your next adventure.

[@CactusAtlas]

Woohoo! Adventures will be had. We're working on planning now. 😄

[@Joshua-wc3ot]

I live near here and was lucky enough to do this hike in the snow once. It was crazy getting to the top and seeing the ruins in powdery snow.

[@CactusAtlas]

WHOA. That's awesome. It's kind of mind-boggling to think about them dusted in snow given how they're not THAAAAT far from Phoenix.

[@Joshua-wc3ot]

@CactusAtlas Yep I live in New River and we've gotten an inch of powder at 2100 feet. The hills get a dusting every year.

[@danialaho5543]

Hi Josh. Greetings from Cokato MN 😊

[@cactusflier]

Thanks Glenn. I just discovered your channel a few weeks ago and you have pointed me to a few places I want to visit. You may already know this but there are similar ruins on top of a small mountain or big hill near Queen Valley north of the 60. I have a short drone vid of the site on my channel. There is a road that will take you right to the base of the hill where there is a foot trail to the site but when I went the supposedly public road was closed with a locked gate. Luckily I was close enough for the drone.

[@CactusAtlas]

Thanks! Glad that you're enjoying our channel. 👍

[@susanasalinas4273]

What wonderful ruins, views n scenery. Arizona is amazing. Glad you let me tag along. Hi Amy.

[@CactusAtlas]

Arizona is amazing. Turn around a corner, and there's history of all sorts. ☺️

[@RangelandRebel15]

Now that was a cool adventure!

[@CactusAtlas]

It was a lot of fun. Thanks for watching! 😄

[@DovieRuthAuthor]

Great timing! I enjoyed your video while I ate my lunch. That’s a fascinating site.

[@CactusAtlas]

Awesome! Thank you! 😄

[@BrianandMoe]

Great effort for us! Enjoyed the trip- appreciate being able to view from my kitchen table!

[@CactusAtlas]

Our pleasure! 😊

[@01Lenda]

Wow! Thanks for the adventure! 🌿🩵🩷

[@CactusAtlas]

Our pleasure! 😊

[@KidYuma1880]

@@CactusAtlas sure glad to. Just another part Az history.

[@SwiftyTravels]

That’s a steep one! I’ve been trying to hike more as well! It’s a great work out! Beautiful views from up there!

[@CactusAtlas]

Yup. Not a nice, gentle ascent. But certainly worth hiking up. 😊

[@tompfeiffer2755]

Great job finding this site!❤ Awesome view!

[@CactusAtlas]

Thank you! 😄

[@DeborahFlorian-gy6lw]

What spectacular scenery! So many high points, much thanks for this gem of a hike! ✨🌵⚡

[@CactusAtlas]

It's amazing out there, isn't it? So hard to remember it's really not that far away in the scheme of things. Love it! 😊

[@ruinsandridges]

There are many defensive ruins across the entire Arizona, some of them require technical rock climbing, others on tall mountains. Nice video!

[@CactusAtlas]

Thanks so much! We definitely don't have the rock climbing skills, but luckily there are plenty of places we can still get to. 😅

[@MissAstorDancer]

STUNNING! I've never seen Cholla that big! They were beautiful! And you climbed right beside a large and beautiful barrell cactus as you ascended to the top! I was wondering if some of the shrubs I was seeing Texas Mountain Laurel? I love everything about the desert! Thanks again for taking me on these amazing adventures that I can no longer physically do! And more power to you to KEEP ON doing what you are doing! You, sir, are "livin' the dream", in my book!

[@CactusAtlas]

Yeah, that cholla is something else, isn't it? I'm ashamed that we don't know as much about some of the plant life. We're slowly learning as we go along. Only so much one can retain when researching so much. 😅

[@AlanDayley]

Great find and nice video to show it. Thank you.

[@AlanDayley]

Those walls on the top are thick and many. Would have been like a castle.

[@CactusAtlas]

I can't see it as anything other than a castle up there. 😄

[@kategerman5974]

I need an app so I can drop pins and then add pictures so I can find cool places again. You always talk about your OnX app. Does it show you hiking trails or just 4x4 trails?

[@CactusAtlas]

Great question. The flavor of OnX that I use is focused on 4 x 4 trails, but they also have a product that is meant for hiking, so same idea. It is called OnX Backcountry. I have never used it so can't vouch, but I do enjoy the Offroad product very much and imagine Backcountry is equally as good.

[@gstiles7]

WOW, just what you found there I can't wait to see what's at the other site 🧐

[@CactusAtlas]

No kidding. Us too. Just a matter of can we reach it. 😂

[@mcoffroadinaz4075]

Amazing job. Great video. I need to check this one out too.

[@CactusAtlas]

Very worth it. We've seen a number of ruins, but this one felt a little more impressive given that small peak.

[@FoxoChaca]

Great way to start my day.

[@CactusAtlas]

Glad to hear it! 😊

[@KidYuma1880]

Interesting video your road trip. where I live in Payson, around corner from my cabin is an archeology still active dig of a camp of some 5+ sites of Hohokam ruins 600-1200 AD. Pretty great.

[@CactusAtlas]

Oh wow! That's got to be interesting to see the development!

[@KidYuma1880]

@@CactusAtlas it’s pretty cool to see early history Hohokam site. Park vehicle walk up to it, not far at all 100-200’ There is broken pottery, but cannot keep it.

[@michaelwalker6121]

Really enjoyed this episode. Amazing ruins that seem on the scale of medevial European fortifications in their placement. First thing that came to my mind was a possible intrusion northward of Aztecs ( we had spoken of this before) but also brings to mind the legends of a race of giant cannablistic humans among the tales of the Comanche, Utes, Piutes, and Navajo tribes.

[@CactusAtlas]

That castle-like look that remains REALLY makes us wonder what the entire place would have looked in the days it was used. It's so hard to see anything other than something resembling a castle. 😅

[@vorhese]

Been really enjoying your videos. I've been watching them to help plan family excursions/day trips. I also ride motorcycles offroad so it also helps to scout out areas! Update your OnX, business expense :D

[@CactusAtlas]

Oh, sweet! So happy that we could help out! ☺️

[@marshmallows5641]

Ooh the big boy cholla! 😍

[@CactusAtlas]

I know! They were huge! Haven't seen any that big in town. 😲

[@Moisessilva-u1p]

Trabalho arqueológico sem dúvida 😊

[@raymonddettlaff1386]

I grew up in Phoenix while my dad lived in Black Canyon City. My brother's and I had hiked and found many similar ruins of a defensive look. I do think at some point some of these places were re-utilized by Apache as defensive holdouts. Spaniards in the 1500's were looking for gold and silver and were a threat.

[@baronessbooks9909]

Look at all the beautiful cactus

[@CactusAtlas]

Certainly no shortage of them out here. 😅

[@JTube571]

I might head out that way soon but not for these ruins specifically. On the taller mountain to the east of these ruins I found a weird wall or ditch along a ridge that looks interesting. May try to get as close as I can and throw the drone in the air to see if I can get a closer look.

[@CactusAtlas]

Awesome! We've been having a lot of fun lately scanning satellite images to see what weird stuff we can find. Most of it is known and well publicized but here and there we've pinned a few things to check out for fun. Enjoy your outing! 😄

[@JTube571]

@@CactusAtlas May also grab some drone footage of the other ruin. I looked on Google Earth and there is definitely a well defined ruin on top of that other hill. The coordinates for that wall or ditch I want to look at are 33.944500, -112.012742

[@parok6568]

Pl be careful on these lonely roads ❤

[@oodhamman]

My people where fighting against The Ancient enemy a cannibal civilization that came from the north. The ancient enemy drove the Aztecs south through Arizona. My people had many different types of weapons but with all our fortresses and our massive population we couldn't defeat them. But we did survive by hiding throughout desert in cave and where ever we could but we did survive. What I'm trying to figure out is who the ancient enemy was. It's hard because over time stories change and the survivors always changes stories. But I believe the ancient enemy was a mixed race of Neanderthal and modern humans and redhead giant's that ruled the south west in ancient times. Because it was such a horrific history that many native Americans tribes purposely forgot the pass because it was so horrible. Evidence only survived in a few places like the cannibals of Chaco canyon and the redhead cannibals of love lock cave. And my people the hohokam we had a witch that ruled and demanded the people to bring her babys to eat. And the mummies of snake Town that Harvard stole and keeps the mummies at the Peabody museum. But that's just my theories till I can do more work to tie it all together. History is so amazing

[@jeffgreen3476]

I was wondering how you know what gates are ok to open when you are by yourself?

[@CactusAtlas]

The way we know is by studying who owns the land. In our case, almost always it is our public lands, managed by the BLM. There are lots of cattle that range back on those lands, so those gates are typically there to keep them in. Sometimes you do come across private land, that’s gated, and if they don’t want you there, trust me, there will be plenty of no trespassing signs. The tool we use to understand who owns what land is On X Offroad. In fact we have a video that comes out today that shows how to do exactly what I’m talking about here. Out in a couple hours.

[@leapinlizard9487]

At about 24:46 there is a petroglyph above your right shoulder of a mountain goat. I enjoyed your video and share your fascination with these ancient sites. I am an Arizona native and have spent most of my 75 yrs. 4-wheeling & hiking the beautiful Arizona mountains and deserts. However, I am disappointed that you chose to give such detailed directions to this site. As you probably know the structures were build between 700 and 1400. Wind, rain & as you stated gravity has taken its toll, but many have also been destroyed by uncaring vandals. I would hope that in your future videos you would be more respectful of these sites exact locations. The more people drawn to the ruins just negatively impacts their survival.

[@CactusAtlas]

Yeaaaaah... not sure how Glenn missed the petroglyphs. He had a moment when reviewing the footage and saw them. 😅 I guess we differ in our opinion on sites like these. We don't want to gatekeep. I know there are vandals in the world but we like to think most people care and follow leave no trace. 🤷‍♀️

[@user-wg6rv9op9r]

​@@CactusAtlas §470hh - Confidentiality of Information Concerning Nature and Location of Archaeological Resources. This section takes a different tack. It says that the location of archaeological sites must be protected and cannot be shared with the public. Question: How does not sharing the location of archaeological sites protect them? Why should sharing site locations be against the law? Answer: If someone knows where an archaeological site is, they can find it and loot it. It is against the law to share a site location, because then the sharer may help a crime to take place. www.nps.gov/teachers/classrooms/learn-law-arpa.htm

[@CactusAtlas]

Thanks for sharing this. I'd welcome to hear more folk's interpretation or opinion about this. Not interested in an ethical debate, but to focus on the legal one here. But I'll offer my opinion here to get started. Even though we get similar comments about other ruins we have visited, like in the Agua Fria, I'll focus on this Hohokam fort. Like the ruins in Agua Fria, which are easily locatable using public documents (in that case published by the Tonto National Forest itself) I would argue this set of Hohokam ruins, as well as three other sites in that area, are extremely easy to find using readily public and abundant information. The easiest example here is, in google maps, if you search for "hohokam forts of Arizona", you will see a marker with precise GPS coordinates to site bravo. It's how I found it in fact. But you can go to a multitude of websites, like the one I used that has a topo map and GPS pins for all of the locations, photos, the whole nine years. I was going to reference it here, but since it does show the location of some other ones I'm on the fence about, I will not include it here to not add fuel to the fire. It is the first result that comes up in various searches about the subject, however, and easy to find. And the list could keep going. Some of these locations even have All Trails routes to them, as is the case with the Roger's Canyon Salado ruins. I could point you to a countless amount of videos on that one. My point is, how can I be revealing the location of something that is already abundantly and demonstrably known? Super easy to find... I was quite surprised myself. How does this law work if a defendant can prove that the information is already widely publicly available? Down to Google Map pins. Something does not smell right about this one to me. I honestly do not know the right answer here, and always strive to do what's right, but what is confusing to me is if this is true, we have hundreds, likely thousands of examples of folks not getting busted then if I extend this out to the other cultures and ruins of the Southwest. But I can interpret that rule in different ways and am not a lawyer, so this is an interesting topic I plan to delve in deeply. Now all that said, I do treasure these sites and share the sentiment of wanting to protect. If one day I find something unknown or suspect, I would be contacting a university like ASU, not making a video. But for sites like bravo, which have been trashed, looted a hundred times over, and have been publicly documented all the way down to Google Map locations, have established trails and roads to them... something tells me that the time to worry about revealing a site like Bravo's location has long past. Likely decades ago. And I'll take my chances continuing what we are doing here on our channel, unapologetically. I will choose to visit places I deem to be already well documented and known, be respectful as always, and push leave no trace principles in my videos, to try and create positive public awareness.

[@leapinlizard9487]

@@CactusAtlas Thank you for your thoughtful reply. I understand your points made. Due to our states' tremendous growth in population I just see more & more people who lack respect for not only sites like this one, but trash out public campgrounds, use forest roads like they are a racetrack and have a general lack of civility towards others trying to enjoy the outdoors. My dad use to say, "they just had a poor upbringing". Unfortunately it will just result in local, state & federal governments putting restrictions on use of our lands.

[@user-wg6rv9op9r]

@@CactusAtlas I appreciate the reply. Please note that I enjoy your channel and, as a former federal archaeologist, ARPA it's no joke. That being said, you're right: there are many sites that have locational info shared online. Depending on whether the site is on state, federal or private land, as well as depending on the views of the lead archaeologist for your regional or state office, you might get no response or you might get pinged on sharing site locations. It's one thing to share locations of known and popular sites like Casa Grande, for example, but lesser known sites attract pot hunters and other looters. I also appreciate your interest in leave no trace, and while this is critical, there's another variable at play with cultural resources like these. Sites are claimed my many local tribes, which is precisely why ARPA exists. While as Americans we all share in this rich history, these sites hold religious and cultural significance for local tribes. To avoid debate, I would simply recommend that you reach out to your Tonto National Forest lead archaeologist and approach them with this question. Thanks again.

[@baronessbooks9909]

Looked like prehistoric shark tooth in the shot where your saying your cautious

[@Moisessilva-u1p]

Com muitas ruínas indígenas ...

[@Moisessilva-u1p]

Parabéns Cactus pelo esforço cansativo de nos mostrar este cenário tipico do Arizona.....cara você precisa treinar o corpo para fazer este trabalho kkkkkkk😅👍

[@CactusAtlas]

🤣 It's been a while. Glenn used to hike a lot more, but ever since we got the truck... 😅

[@richardbeee]

I heard they were very much into communication. When their antenna quit blinking its green light, the other tribes came in and took over. Everything.😮😂😊

[@scottysworld700]

Brother why don't you drive to New Mexico or Nevada and show some things?

[@CactusAtlas]

We have many times. Just not lately, as we've had family events that have kept us in town. Life, you know. 😅🤷‍♀️

[@Moisessilva-u1p]

Aqui na América do Sul moro em região parecida como esta que vc está.....é de fato uma região árida 👏👏👏

[@Sean2002FU]

You left Slim out of this one! O-boy, He's not going to be happy next time out!!.....I'm glad I'm not you..... just saying!!😅😅😅

[@CactusAtlas]

Hahaha! Slim will just have to put on his big boy pants and suck it up. 🤣