My last post was almost two years ago today exactly (6/8/2011).  Since then I’ve taken 58 more trips up to Agua Fria National Monument.  I’m currently at 10,000+ photos, 900+ in kilometers hiked and 527 prehistoric habitation structures located.

This spring I showed a public Power Point presentation at the Arizona Archaeological Expo.  It was held on March 16th at the Horseshoe Ranch along the Agua Fria River in the middle of the monument.  It was titled, “The Rock Art of Perry Mesa” and had over 100 of my favorite images of petroglyphs from the vicinity of the monument.

Agua Fria National Monument is just over 70,000 acres of mostly wilderness area located on Black Mesa and Perry Mesa east of I-17 and between Black Canyon City on the south and Cordes Lakes and Dugas on the north.  We generally refer to the whole area as “Perry Mesa”, but it is quite a bit more.  It includes Black Mesa just to the east of Sunset Point Rest Stop, the Agua Fria River Canyon, Perry Mesa to the east of that and several small mesas to the north, including Sycamore Mesa.

My trips there over the years have included my favorites which are one day hikes just by myself looking each time at new areas, archaeological surveys for ASU and BLM, special tours for AAS, FAFNM and friends, and occasional days spent participating in special events or planning meetings for the joint oversight group comprised of BLM, AZG&F and Tonto National Forest.

There are times when I stay away from the monument: Wet days during and following rain storms when the roads are so muddy you can sink in up to your doors; and, days when the temperatures are up over 105 or 110 degrees.  Those latter days it is sort of dangerous to be out bush whacking cross country by yourself.  You can easily be overcome by the heat since you normally are wearing lots of protective clothing and hiking boots along with carrying a backpack, camera equipment, fanny pack and other miscellaneous gear.

During those times I’m off the monument (which include a good deal of the summer), I work on other projects related to my interests there.  Those currently include managing my Garmin waypoints and information collected about sites I’ve found along with working on a set of cards for identifying and understanding the various types of pottery sherds found on Perry Mesa.  In addition, I have a library of books that I’m working through which explain much about what is known and not known regarding prehistoric cultures of the Southwest.

Enough for this update.  More blogging later.