I lived in Arizona for ten years. Anne grew up there. And we've visited the various parks, monuments, and historic and archaeological sites all over the state. Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico, as well as most of the other Colorado Plateau and Great Basin states, have a large number of lesser known sites that just seem to keep popping up. We had never heard of Honanki until this recent trip to the Flagstaff area. And it's these kinds of unexpected discoveries that make trips a lot more fun.

We had just visited Tuzigoot National Monument and headed from there toward Sedona on Highway 89-A. There are two noted archaeological sites up a long dirt road. The turnoff is hard to see and only signed with a small Forest Service route sign. We missed it at first and had to turn around and go back. It is signed as Forest Service Route 525, and is on the north side of Highway 89-A.

There is a long, bumpy, dirt and gravel road that leads to the sites. The Palatki Heritage Site is to the right at a Y, and it is well signed. The Honanki Heritage Site is reached by staying to the left, and it is also signed. The Palatki Site has limited parking and so reservations are required. It also closes at 3:30, so there was no sense in us even trying to get there. So we headed for Honanki.

As we drove north we couldn’t help but marvel at the beauty of the surrounding red cliffs ahead of us. Very impressive.

3:28 p.m.
At the Honanki Heritage Site there is a small building for the Forest Service person, a modern pit toilet type restroom, and quite a bit of parking. I don't think there was drinking water available. The GPS Coordinates for the parking area are N34 56.194; W111 56.063; at an elevation of 4,736 feet. A Red Rock Pass is required to park along this road, but our Golden Eagle pass, with the hologram, covered it for us. We just placed it in the front window.

It took us about an hour to tour the site. There was a storm moving in, so we probably rushed it a bit. It's not a huge site, but impressive none the less. There is a .75 mile natural surface loop trail that passes in front of, and through, the ruins. There are a lot of trees along the way, so it’s pretty well shaded.

For the most part we had the site to ourselves, although we did hear other voices. I believe they were part of one of the many Pink Cliffs Tours that were in the area. We saw their jeeps in the parking area.

There are several rooms of cliff dwellings backed in along a cliff. These dwellings are in various stages of decomposition. Some are still quite complete and the Forest Service has blocked off the entrances to these, preventing us from looking inside. Anne poked her head into one and said that she could see pictographs on the wall inside. We could also see pictographs on the walls behind some of the dwellings that have collapsed. And there were many unusual pictographs high above our heads on the shear cliff face.

The rock art here seems unusual in that there were many figures painted in white, and there were several large circles, perhaps two feet across. There weren't a lot of animal figures, but we did see a very nice kokopelli image. There also appears to be some vandalism in some parts of the site. The other unusual thing about this site is that you don't usually see rock art images associated this closely with a dwelling site.

Just as we headed back to the parking area the anticipated storm blew in, with rain and gusting winds. Dust was flying everywhere. It was 86 degrees. By the time we got back to the truck it was raining pretty hardy. There were more of the Pink Cliffs tour jeeps in the parking area, and more along the road as we headed out. The tourists didn't look all that comfortable as they bounced along the now muddy roads with rain pouring into their open faces. The tour company had given each of them a clear plastic poncho, but they were so flimsy that the wind just seemed to blow them to the side, exposing the wearer to the downpour. Ah ... part of the adventure. s to protect them against the rain.