I Found an Ancient Watchtower and Dwellings in this Desert Canyon
In the heart of the desert Southwest lies a land heavy with forgotten history, a place where ancient civilizations once thrived and then vanished without a trace. Here, among the endless canyons and shifting shadows, the place holds tight to its secrets. But every so often, the desert decides to whisper. On this day, where the silence weighed heavy, the land revealed something it had guarded for lifetimes. Just when I thought the desert had given me all it would, the cliffs shifted, the sun moved, and in the blink of an eye, another secret was unearthed—one hidden in plain sight, waiting for the right moment to finally come to light. Welcome to Outer Range.
While researching a canyon system on Google Earth, I noticed something unusual. Here was a series of right angles on top of a mountain promontory. The angles didn't look natural to me. It seemed like something human might have been there, so I decided I wanted to find out if this could be connected to the ancient cultures that once lived in this area.
Found me a game trail, happy for that. Right here on the edge of the cliff, so the animals will also try to find the easiest route. A lot of bear. There's a lot of deer in this area too—our white tail and mulies. I think this is probably more mule deer country. But what's really cool about this is about four steps to the right and I can be at the bottom. Oh my, what have I done? Where am I? I've made it around this, uh, this rock outcropping right here and wow, these people did not—the access is unreal. Now I'm on the backside and I still don't know how to get up there, so it's almost like it's cliffed out all the way. But there it is—that's
the backside. I still want to get up there, so I'm going to keep working at it and, uh, see what I can't do here. They're going to make me earn this one for sure. This is the route that I have to go to get there. It's absolutely—I've made it so far to not get to this, I'm just going to keep pushing. But time is ticking away.
Well, I climbed up here to get to that pueblo and no joke—that is deep. I wish I could show you, but that is profound. I can't see the bottom. A person doesn't want to fall down in that. That's crazy. After one of the most difficult scrambles I've ever made in my life, what I'm coming up to—oh wow. I can't wait to show you. We'll see it together. Here, you can see where the natural rock of the mountain goes up and blends in with the man-made portion of this. Maybe kind of peek inside.
And I don't know if it was a dwelling, a lookout point, a place for rituals. I just know everything up here is very loose and very loose and sketchy to walk around on. There's more down below; it's multi-layered, but they certainly used the natural rock outcropping to integrate their building with it. Here's a view again of the surroundings. So it's not a cliff dwelling, but it kind of is. It's
really like an old pueblo up on top of a ridgetop. And this is what I had seen from Google Earth. I'm standing here in front of a crumbling wall. You can kind of see the country around—big, big country.
What do you think? Is this a watchtower, a ceremonial site? From here you can see straight down the valleys and across the open land. Most other structures in this area are hidden, but this particular one stands out. As you watch the next segment and see how it is positioned, let me know what you think this place might be. To grasp the complexity and location of this structure here are views from all angles Why Here? Out in the open Yet difficult to access Was this a central meeting place? But Wait...there's more
beyond anything I imagined Okay, right here behind me—if I'm out of breath, it's probably because I've been hiking and I'm also super excited—headed to an area that's supposed to hold some ruins. Haven't got there yet, but on the way out here across the canyon, there's a lot of bluffed-out areas. I know they're a long way away, but I just found some alcoves that are holding for sure three different ruins in there. And so now, you know, I was planning on being here overnight just in case I couldn't get in and out of this one. But, uh, now I'm wondering, in the time frame I have, how in the world I get over there to see those. But it's 2 miles plus from here as the crow flies,
and probably 8 miles hiking. So that kind of tempers the excitement just a little bit. But I know they're there, even if it's another trip. Amazing. This country is absolutely astonishing. Well, I thought this might deserve an explanation. This part of what I'm going to show you—I came into an area looking for a particular, um, cliff dwelling. On my way to the dwelling, turned around—I was looking at some cliffs, there's some cliffs that's back over here—and I turn and I find the shadows and everything just hit just right. And I see little arches, and get my binoculars out. I look through, and sure enough, there are walls and structure.
Never heard about these before and super just kind of overwhelmed to think that maybe I might have found something that perhaps hadn't been found in a very, very long time. I wasn't really prepared to explore these others. It's gotten hot, and I just feel like making the right decision is not to go. I mean, I would love to get the close-up view of maybe what's there,
maybe what's not, but I'm not going to today. So, uh, but I do want to share with you what I perhaps get here in a few minutes on the drone. Thanks for understanding. This canyon system holds some of the richest discoveries I've encountered in all my journeys through the Southwest. Tucked deep in the shadowed arches of the South Rim, I found these ancient cliff dwellings—guardians of a mostly forgotten world.
At first, I thought there were only three, but as I sent the drone soaring closer, the truth revealed itself—there were six, at least. Yet I feel there are even more. Today the canyon asked me to wait. The journey wasn't meant for this day. After many trips into the area, I feel this canyon keeps beckoning me back, teasing me with more, wanting to share. And soon we'll go back.
2025-04-26 18:52
