I Found The Heart of an Ancient World While Backpacking

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on this episode I'm backpacking into a

remote Canyon complex in the American

southwest where I'll be camping hiking

and exploring for the next 3

days along the way I face adverse

weather conditions battle through

Tangled brush and I'm reminded I may not

be the only one in this

Canyon but I'm rewarded with seeing many

evidences of the ancient ones that used

to call these places

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home this is one trip I'll remember for

a very long

time oh man it's just just one of those

days I am grateful to be out here

full-on spring hasn't hit things aren't

greened up yet but the weather's really

starting to feel nice it's the time of

year when water really shouldn't be an

issue you and we just had a storm come

through about 5 days ago so it's good

sign seeing all these potholes already

full of water if you're not familiar

with desert hiking drinking out of

potholes is very common of course you

want to filter it like you always do but

a pothole is basically just an eroded

kind of shallow impression sometimes

they're deep um but just an impression

in the Sandstone that collects

water ah feels good to be in the

canyon wow that that was fast I

literally just dropped in sort of around

this Bend about 200 yds back and clearly

that is an ancient route to get into

this Canyon because we've got a little

Grainery

there and I just noticed bigger

structure right

there I'm realizing there's a lot on

this overhang but let's check this one

out first looks just like a standard

Grainery in here

okay so about 25 ft to the right is this

much

bigger structure or what remains of it

this was clearly a habitation because

you've got all the blackening up there

on the

ceiling wow yeah this whole interior

wall is just covered in

soot here's some more down

here

not really sure if that's original or

somebody more recent times stacked all

that Juniper wood like

that look at this there's still a little

bit of the original fibers that they

used to tie those sticks

together probably 8 900 plus years

old

here's the inside

construction these things are pretty

much always empty these days so and

imagine what was in here at one point in

time so the second one has a great

example of you know how these things

would have originally been sealed up

this is not sealed this is just sort of

propped propped up against that but it's

a good example of how when these things

were actually in use they would have

sealed this front little doorway with

like a Sandstone slab like that so many

fingerprints up here in this

mortar so you can just see how like

perfectly three fingers just sort of fit

right up in there and push that in there

and it's always fascinating to think you

know how old was that person what was

their life like you know how long did

they live for

so if you're wondering you know how can

these ancient structures that are 800 a

th000 plus years old uh be in such good

shape out here well you're really

looking at it right here this big

overhang protects them from pretty much

all sun and definitely all rain and snow

and so already it's a dry climate out

here but then you throw in something

like this and yeah these things have you

know withstood

centuries well that's a great start if

this is a sign of things to come I think

we're in for a special

trip now that the days are getting

warmer the sun's heating up all the sap

out of these pinion Pines and the smell

is just so good it's definitely one of

my favorite scents out

here what well we've got a little bit of

a

conundrum clearly water is not going to

be an issue this trip but maybe too much

water will be an issue I would prefer to

stay dry so I think I'm going to see if

there's any way I can walk around the

rim here and drop in lower

down okay well that wasn't too bad just

a little extra

work we'll see what's up

ahead starting to wonder if there's

going to be more deep potholes that I

can't

avoid looks like a huge chunk of this

cottonwood tree fell down probably this

winter I am just blown away by how much

water is in here it's good Southwest

needs all the water it can

get it's insane there's literally water

everywhere there so much water that I'm

actually going to just dump out a couple

extra bottles I had I started off with 3

l which is kind of my standard amount

but yeah I mean when the water is this

plentiful I'll just carry like one one

liter and just refill frequently water's

heavy every liter is about 2.2 lbs so

you know I just shed about 4 lbs

here all right this is pretty cool so I

was just walking down here in the wash

and as I walked by I spotted the corner

of this box and I was like what the

heck and so I walked up here and I

realized oh this is an old cowboy Camp

old

cans looks like an old pack saddle here

maybe I think this is an old pack

saddle huh

wonder what

vintage old

horseshoes

some pan of some

kind think it's seen better days this is

up on the

overhang can't really make it out I

don't know if it's just a a name or a

date looks sort of like it says you know

maybe

like June or January 12th 1914 but I

could be completely making that up it's

like a huge uh kind of storage

deal

huh whole

bucket what do we got

huh a very old vintage lifesaver

orange

flavor what book is this

from all my friends are honest

folk I have to look that up when I get

back

and old box of

matches true American

brand I wonder what era that's from

it's like a little time machine back in

here looks like that's it that was a

cool little find wasn't it just a

reminder people have been crisscrossing

through these Canyons for you know

centuries up until the modern day as I

continued on I had an odd feeling that I

had seen this site before but how when I

got home I did some searching and

realized I had come across unnamed

photos of that same Cowboy camp

I looked at the photos with new eyes one

of them was from 2016 and showed the

inside of that same metal bin first I

was surprised at what I saw in the

picture then saddened to realize that a

mere 8 years ago there were more than

twice as many historic relics in the

same

container some selfish hiker or

Backpacker with sticky fingers had

walked away with numerous relics of the

Cowboys past

robbing not only me but everyone who

comes after of experiencing history

firsthand I truly fear what these places

will look like in 10 20 or 50 years if

we can't learn how to tread lightly

respect others and leave artifacts in

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place but for the time being I hiked on

oblivious to this still Blissful because

of my

ignorance

I just dropped my pack and ran up to two

different promising looking sites and

nothing was there that's kind of always

the Crux in places like this is you know

there's so many possible areas of just

some really neat historical and

archaeological finds that you're just

you're torn between you know covering

miles with the backpack and exploring

every nook and cranny and you can't do

it

all and I'm definitely a recovering

perfectionist always want everything to

be you know just right and sometimes

that serves me well and other times I

got to come out in places like this and

remember

hey it ain't going to be perfect and

just enjoy it find the little things to

be grateful

for speaking of which literally as I

said that look down

here next to my

footprint it's time

tiny but that's just a little piece of

corrugated

Pottery just washed down here the bottom

of the Canyon

from some ancient life probably

somewhere up on these

Ledges where

exactly hard to

say nothing but coyotes ahead of

me trying to knock some miles out then

my eyes spy that up in the corner

there

wow didn't even make it up there

yet where they went somewhere right

around the

corner so just down here looks like

we've

got it's like the style I saw down in

the

creek

so there's like two entryways

here it's pretty

cool

wow look at this I think it might be a

packrats nest and he just took you know

whatever he could find around here but

there are literally I mean dozens if not

like a 100 plus ancient corn cobs in

there from The ancestral

peblo just goes to show how much corn

they were able to

grow in the past Century when

archeologists and Scholars have been

trying to you know kind of classify

people and and put different cultures

into different time periods uh one of

the major distinguishing factors that

they've used is the development of

Agriculture here in the southwest it's

always hard for us in the modern day to

to try to wrap our heads around how you

farmed so extensively out here um but

you know the ancient people eventually

figured out how to grow corn beans and

squash and those were kind of some of

their main Staples for survival out here

so I just came up down from the bottom

here walked up this little wash and

already I can tell this place is

impressive there's pictographs and

petroglyphs

everywhere look at the size of these

Boulders I mean they're like the size of

a small

house and some of them

have various petroglyphs on

them some animals maybe a snake turkey

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tracks so this panel I know is pretty

old and the large reason I say that is

this what looks almost like a the New

Year's Eve ball in Time Square um is

actually a depiction of an at latle

which was U like a predecessor of the

bow and

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arrow here's some pottery this one in

particular caught my eye it's got a

drill hole through it which

I've kind of heard different theories

about what people think that was used

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for here's the first structure tucked up

under the cliff and these

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handprints then here's a look down the

ledge where there's a lot

more

this a pretty big sight I mean I'd say

it's 40 to 50 ft

long one of the first things I notice

are these Port holes which if you've

watched other of my videos you know

you've seen

before so I climbed up right here but I

wouldn't be surprised if at one point in

time all of this was like sealed off

here where this wall starts I think it's

probably crumbled and then I'll walk you

over I suspect the main entry was right

here that's definitely a

doorway and this port hole is like an

ancient ring doorbell system like this

literally looks out and right there is

the door that I just showed you so if

you're curious that's what I just showed

you you here's the main

doorway and then this wall I'm sure has

fallen but it goes all the way

back into

there and along this whole

way there's Port

holes

everywhere oh wow that is really cool

there is a ton of pottery back

here

wow some big chunks

too look at

that

amazing it's a really fascinating site

for a lot of reasons but look at this

it's like an old doorway that's been

sealed

up so at one point in time the original

inhabitants obviously changed the use

and function of that room in there for

whatever reason they sealed it

up so back here on this door there's

still a little bit of the original

cordage that they use to tie

that

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oh

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never ceases to amaze me it's just so

cool let's keep moving we got to find a

campsite before it gets

dark

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so I came to another pourover probably

40 ft off the ground I'm confident

there's a way around it but I don't know

whether I go to the right or

left so with daylight fading and having

to do some troubleshooting I'm tempted

to go up on this ledge somewhere up in

here just find a flat spot and set up

camp there's a little pool of water

right back here that that'll do too so

well I think this is it got a little

patch of sand here mostly slick Rock but

that's fine it's flat um yeah I've had

better had worse campsites so I think

I'm going to drop the pack and go grab

some water get some dinner going get

tent set up all that kind of

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stuff sometimes I see comments and

people ask me what kind of gear I use

I've got some of it linked in in the

description um not all of it so if you

want to see more just I guess let me

know and I can add that this is just a

little oneman tent from

REI it is nice not to be freezing as

soon as the sun goes

down I think it's still supposed to get

down to about 32 tonight but you know

it's still probably in the mid-40s now

which feels pretty nice

nice nothing special for dinner tonight

I had a feeling it'd be probably a late

night to Camp so just freeze-dried meal

think I'm going to sit here eat that

watch the stars and then head to bed so

we can get an early start

tomorrow good morning everybody I'm up

at first light

I think we got a big day ahead so I'm

going to get started with some Camp

chores like grabbing water and um going

to make a big breakfast and we'll get

rolling if you're curious what's on the

menu this morning it's kind of like a

breakfast scramble of sorts the main

thing you got these dehydrated eggs that

actually tastes really good I can't

really tell the difference um some of

that pre-cooked bacon all you have to do

is warm it up

and then I throw in a little bit of

zucchini pepper and shallot not the

whole thing that'll be for dinner

tonight and then add some carbs I just

crumble up some uh corn tortillas of

course you got to top it with some

cheese yeah pretty good stuff eat good

you feel good top it with a salsa packet

and some hot

sauce and that my friends is a good

breakfast for a good

day

all right let's get rolling I'm excited

although it's looking kind of for boing

in that direction we're headed uh

there's a big storm moving into the

mountains later this afternoon and I

watched the weather really closely for

this area um and they were only

predicting like 20% chance of rain SL

snow today which I was kind of skeptical

about because given the forecast I was

seen for the mountains but I don't know

we will see could get interesting before

it gets

over well here's the

20% if it gets worse I'll have to stash

this camera and break out the rain gear

but we'll see I'm hoping it's just a

kind of a passing

shower so I'm hiking along this water

and and you know seeing a lot of deer

tracks nothing in commmon with that and

I was

walking right over

here and check those out those aren't

deer tracks that's a mountain

line possibly tracking those deer

a little intriguing isn't it I mean

those aren't brand new fresh or anything

that wasn't in the last day or probably

a handful of days ago I would

guess beautiful

day cleared up pretty quickly who knows

there may be more coming in but for now

I'll take

it feeling increasingly small I

continued on firmly held within the

confines of the

canyon although the threat of Storm

still seemed possible the weather held

and I was able to quickly put miles

behind

me eventually I came to a Sandstone

bench I decided to drop some camping

gear here then continue on with a

lighter pack coming back to camp at this

ledge by

Nightfall okay let's go explore I was

just walking in the wash and I noticed

right at this like huge kind of overhang

and I thought huh I should go check up

in

there and there

is a really cool looking pictograph

panel up

there

wow I think the first thing that really

stands out to me is just the

colors like you've got green red orange

yellow oh and I just realized white too

too it's pretty uncommon to see you know

all of these colors in the same

panel I believe that's representative of

a corn

plant bunch of

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handprints wonder what that guy's doing

is he

dancing so I realized okay there's a

huge bird here it's I

it's like a

bullseye so

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cool there's so much some of it more uh

clear than

others

look at that figure at the top he's got

like a sash around his

waist look at

that that's kind of

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creepy so while I had my backpack off um

I kind of went around the corner and

climbed up on a little bit of a ledge

while I was up there I could look up

Canyon and I saw a pretty interesting

looking Rune up there so let's go check

that

out wow there it is through the

trees this is far more impressive than I

could tell from a

distance there's a lot of structures up

there so it sits about I don't know

probably close to 40 ft off the canyon

bottom

man this is

unreal so here's what you first come to

you know probably honestly about a 7ot

high

wall with a really large doorway in

terms of like what you normally see out

here and this thing is really solidly

constructed like they didn't want this

thing just knocked down

easily and then then I was just sitting

here marveling so this is built out like

right to the very

edge and then there's a little Cliff

here I mean not like a death defined

Cliff but you know 8 ft or something you

wouldn't want to fall off there and it's

pretty steep I mean I'm just sort of

sitting up here on this and yeah it's

like I get that it can be done but just

to think about the work and the care

that had to go into the construction of

this

and just some huge chunks of sandstone

as well like like this one right here I

mean that's probably at least 2 fet long

you've got one over here little bit

smaller but still I mean Hefty and of

course more Port holes here peep holes

loopholes whatever you want to call

them and I just turned back to grab

something out of my backpack and I

realized there's a bunch of

handprints look how small this one is in

particular you know it's probably it's

not even the length of my index finger

that's that's a young kid like I don't

know 5 years old look at these wooden

support

beams perfectly intact and

preserved bunch of corn cobs just inside

the

doorway you know this wall is just so

big and imposing like a lot bigger than

uh really any other Rune I can think

I've come across and it makes me wonder

you know was this fully enclosed at one

point or was its purpose to be really

just like a kind of a defensive line you

know something to keep keep the unwanted

people whoever that might be

out

so right over the

door it's another little pictograph

figure maybe 15t down from

him all of

this there's just so much look at this

handprint with like the swirl to

it that's different I continued on down

the ledge past a small storage structure

to the main building that had first

caught my attention

it's it's

unreal I don't even know where to

begin and look at these wooden beams

coming

out I just noticed right outside the

door door there's this big Sandstone

slab um it's what we call a matate and

you can see there's like a faint

indentation around it and that's where

they would have ground corn and seeds

and things like

that so it's best not to enter buildings

like this because inadvertently we bump

the the doors or the walls or something

when we go in but I'll put the camera in

here for sure so they had another

doorway so you could exit and enter via

both

sides

wow you can see really how they built

these things it's like a twostory ruin

here

amazing

okay I'll put this action camera on the

selfie stick through

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here

seems like a fitting time to wax poetic

and say some deep things about life or

the Ancients

but I got

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nothing

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taking it in like hopefully you guys can

do on the screen for the afternoon I'm

going to head up another side Canyon and

explore and so I think this makes kind

of a fitting breaking point where uh

I'll do the rest of the trip in a second

part I'll post it next week and so if

you are watching this video um over a

week since I posted it I'll put a link

in the description hope you guys enjoyed

it thanks for coming along