Redfield Canyon Rock House, AZ, February 2016

A contemporary cliff dwelling in the desert.

The Redfield Canyon Rock House was built in 1936 in a remote canyon in the Galiuro Mountians in southeast Arizona by Chick and Harriet Logan. We're going on this adventure with our friend Dave from Tucson. The trip takes us several hours and ends with miles of rough jeep track ascending to a place on the rim where we can hike down into Redfield Canyon.

Dave takes us over miles of rough jeep track in Big Red to get to Redfield Canyon.

Dave.

The path into the canyon is often sketchy and steep.

Jim and I hiking into Redfield Canyon.

Halfway down the path we can see the Cottonwood-filled canyon floor. The trees are just beginning to bud on this warm desert February day. We see a troop of Coati in the stream below and they shuffle off into the undergrowth before we get to the bottom.

Looking into Redfield Canyon.

Redfield Canyon is flowing with spring runoff from the Galiuro Mountains. It's beautiful and wild. We hike a mile down stream before we come to the Rock House.

Dave along Redfield Canyon Creek.

It's amazing someone would build a house in this remote canyon where everything had to be packed in by mule. The couple owned a few acres in the canyon and this is were they chose to be. The beauty, solitude and magic of a desert stream provide all the reasons for being here.

Looking up at the canyon rim from the Rock House.

The Rock House isn't on a high ledge as cliff dwellings tend to be but it is about 20 feet above the stream and built against the cliff face in an overhang. We get our first view from the steam and follow a path leading up to the house.

The Rock House.

We approach the house through the courtyard facing the stream. Empty, glass-less windows stare back. The circular window above the door once held stained glass. The rock for the construction was gathered form the stream below.

Approaching the front door through the court yard.

Worn out windows frame canyon views.

The circular window above the door once held stained glass.

One last artifact.

The Rock House is built with a U-shaped floor plan. One wing are the bedrooms with a door into the court yard.

The bedroom wing.

The other wing are the dining room and kitchen with a door onto the court yard.

The dining room and kitchen wing.

The great room occupies the vaulted cliff face between the two wings.

In the great room looking toward the bedroom door. A wood stove must have stood in the corner to the left of the door.

Like cliff dwellings with southern exposures, the Rock House is warmed through the windows by the low-angle winter sun. All the glass had been knocked out. A hole in the upper right of the photo below must have been were a stove pipe for a wood stove had been. We figured someone wanted it and wasn't too delicate about removing it.

Looking out the front door across the court yard.

We explore the kitchen wing of the house first.

Jim looks out the great room side door that leads to a porch.

Jim in the arch between the great room and dining room.

A nicely crafted arch connects great room to dining room. The dining room has a wood plank ceiling and paneled wall. The door to the courtyard was sealed with galvanized sheet metal.

Looking at the dining room from the great room to the door that leads to the kitchen.

The kitchen window looks out to the courtyard.

People have squatted here at times and left canned food and a mess behind.

Canned food left behind.

The propane refrigerator had to be brought in by mule. For some reason someone cannibalized it.

The kitchen door leads to  a porch and stairs to a cellar. 

The porch outside the great room and kitchen door to the stair that leads to the cellar.

The kitchen door leads to a stair to a cellar beneath the house. We found heaps of junk and trash in it most likely tossed there by people who have squatted here.

The dining room window.

After exploring the kitchen wing we go across the house to look at the bedroom wing.

The door from the great room to a bedroom or study.

The wood arch of the bedroom door.

Like the dining room arch the bedroom door arch is nicely crafted and would have been brought to the house in one piece. The bedroom also has a paneled wall and ceiling. After all these years the floors, ceiling and paneled walls are still tight. The floors didn't squeak when we walk through the house.

The bedroom or study and left over trash from a squatter.

A hall leads to the master bedroom and bathroom at the end of the wing. The roof of the bedroom has collapsed and the exposure is damaging the floors.

The master bedroom

Looking across the courtyard to the kitchen wing from the bedroom door.

Jim and Dave look at the log book in the great room.

Looking from the study into the great room.

The house is a historical treasure but vandalism has taken its toll. It's a shame there are people who have to abuse these special places. Hopefully someone will be able to organize the preservation of this place so others can enjoy it.

Photo 1.

The sunlight was really bright on the house I took a couple photos of the house with different filters.

Photo 2.

We have our lunch on a grassy bank by the stream below the house before we hike out. On the way back up the climb to the rim I see an arch.

An arch in Redfield Canyon.

We drive back down the rocky jeep trail until we get to a dirt road. Follow the dirt to the pavement and the pavement into Tucson's hustle and bustle. A world removed from the solitude of the Redfield Canyon Rock House.

Join us next time for more adventures.
Until then.
Jackie

Devil's Chasm Fortress, Arizona

Devil's Chasm Fortress. Our friend, Dave came up from Tucson to hike and kayak with us. Our first adventure is a hike to Devil's Chasm Fortress in Devil's Chasm on the east side of the Ancha Mountains. The chasm is accessed by Forest Road 203 through Cherry Creek. It's about a 2 hour drive from our camp at Windy Hill on Roosevelt Lake. 4-wheel drive is necessary for the last couple miles. In the photo below the road looks passable by car but this is only a short section that wasn't steep and rocky.

Forest Road 203 looking toward Devil's Chasm. 

The Fortress is about two miles up the chasm from FR 203. There is about a 2000+ foot altitude gain so the trail is often steep. It's not an official trail but a path made by hikers to the ruin so in some places it's sketchy. Some scrambling is necessary to get above rock faces along the stream and to climb around waterfalls. The hike took us about 5 hours round trip including time to enjoy the ruin and appreciate the many beautiful waterfalls along the way.

Entering the chasm.

The chasm narrows as we hike and is filled with a tumble of boulders and decorative cascades. The water carries on a quiet conversation, chuckling softly as it leaps down the rocks.

The creek carries on a quiet conversation in the shadow of the chasm walls.

Decorative cascades.

About half way up the trail we suddenly enter the narrows and come to the first waterfall. In the confines of narrows the falls roar like a stadium crowd and the creek tumbles down the bedrock to its own applause.

Dave and Jim enter the narrows and come to the first waterfall.

Jim and Dave at the first waterfall.

Looking back down canyon from below the first falls.

The falls roars like a stadium crowd.

To continue up the chasm we go to the right of the falls. There's a climbing rope there that makes it easy to walk up the 15 foot, smooth rock face were we can crawl through a passage between two large boulders to come out on top of the falls. We brought a climbing rope along in case the ropes that were there were rotten.

Jim uses the rope assist to climb to a passage between two boulders that we will crawl through to get to the top of the falls.

The second falls.

A few hundred yards up canyon we come to the second falls. If the rocks weren't so wet and slick it may have been possible to scramble up the left side. Instead we have to scramble up to the right and carefully walk a sloping rock face above falls to continue up canyon. You need to be sure-footed.

Jim at the top of the second falls.

Looking down the chasm from the top of the second falls.

Climbing up this series of falls quickly gains us a lot of elevation. The chasm is painted with subtle colors by the low sun angle that filers ambient light through the chasm in February.

Dave at the top of the second falls.

Looking back down canyon to the top of the second falls below us.

As we continue up the chasm there are smaller falls that are easy to walk up.

Jim hikes on past smaller falls.

We come to one of the last falls and the chasm widens. We getting closer to our destination.

One of the last falls as we encounter as we continue up the chasm.

The chasm bedrock and falls come to an end and we work our way up a tight boulder filled drainage until we find a faint path that leads up the right side of the drainage. A few cairns along the way let us know we're on the right track. The path goes straight up a steep, bushy slope that calls for grabbing branches and small tree trunks to pull ourselves up for a several hundred feet. About half way up we get our first view of Devil's Chasm Fortress above us.

Our first view of the Fortress.

We get closer to the Fortress.

We reach the Fortress and have to climb up a rounded 3 foot ledge made a little slick by a seep dripping down from the cliff above coating the rock with algae.

On the ledge with the Fortress.

We'er on the ledge with the Fortress. We see that the rock had to be laid to extend the ledge for the construction.

Looking at an exterior wall.

The walls are nicely laid and chinked on the exterior. Mud mortar is used on the interior walls and you can see the finger impressions of the people as they pressed the mud into place.

The people left their finger impressions as they pressed the mud mortar into the rock.

Looking through the doors of three rooms.

A fire spread through this area in recent times and burned the roof, upper story floors and lintels. We noted rock slabs placed in an organized way on the ceiling beams which would be the floor of the second story. Wonder how they came to be there?

Slabs of rock were placed in an orderly fashion on the ceiling beams.

An opening seems to have been walled up on the left at the cliff face. Note all the finger indentations in the mud mortar that give it a textured appearance.

We also noticed modifications to the structure that weren't consistent with the other stone work. Some openings had been sealed up and some openings had been modified which made them look more like the T-shaped doors of Chaco Canyon.

A modified opening that was rectangular and now looks T-shaped.

Another modified opening.

Looking out  the Fortress to Cherry Creek 2000 ft below.

The people who built here must have been in need of a defensible place. It's a difficult walk down the chasm or a climb to the top. Not a place you'd want to commute to the fields or for a hunting trip.

Looking across the chasm from the Fortress.

We have our lunch sitting on the Fortress ledge and contemplate the grand view as we talk about what might have gone on here.

Me at the entry to the Fortress.

At the entry to the Fortress are tumbled down walls so there were more rooms at one time.

The afternoon sun will soon be behind the mountain and we bound our way back down the chasm, skirting waterfalls as shadows creep along behind us. We'll get back to camp before dark.

Thanks for following our adventure. Join us next time for a look at a contemporary cliff dwelling.

Until then,
Jackie