Guide to Cherry Creek Archeological Area
 
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This trek has been moved to Astertiki, where it can and may have been updated.

In keeping with my decision not to be the first to publish a trek into a little known ruin, I have not provided the details of how to find the ruins we visited.  Cherry Creek Canyon and it's tributaries of Devil's Chasm, Cold Springs, Pueblo Canyon and Cooper Forks (on the East bank) and extending further North is an extremely dense archeological area.  There are numerous ruins and old mines located North of the Ranch which you pass at the 19 mile mark.

The road from SR 288 up to the ranch can be a rough, wash-board, shock-busting  road but is generally is passable by all vehicles.  However, after fording Cherry Creek near the ranch, the road becomes impassible for anything but high clearance vehicles (four wheel drive is best but not required) up to where the "road" crosses the stream at Devil's Chasm.  The road is closed at that point because the culvert has washed out   The four-wheelers have created a road beside the washout and can continue beyond this crossing and presumably up the rest of Cherry Creek Canyon.  (I have only gone about a mile beyond the crossing at Pueblo Canyon.)  But it doesn't matter, the trees, nearly level ground and running water at Devil's Chasm make it the best and most popular camp spot along the canyon. The camp site is about 2.5 miles beyond the ranch.

We followed a  trail up to the ruin from the road.  At points this trial is little more than a "game" trail and the 2.25 mile hike into the ruin was a steady accent with an average gain of nearly 900 ft of elevation per mile.  The climb has level stretches but they are densely overgrown with bushes that tear at your arms and clothes and in some small sections the trail crosses boulder fields.  Nearing the ruins, we came to an abandoned Radium mine and then passed under a water-fall.  Being badly out of shape after taking a year off from strenuous climbing, it was a killer of a climb for me but beautiful and worthwhile none-the-less.

The couple who introduced me to this area has made about 8 trips into this ruin since 1988.  During their exploration of the area, they have watched a continual decline of the archeology even though the area is not well known.  Among the artifacts discovered, and left undisturbed, by this couple and their friends have been pottery and a skeleton, all of which are gone now.  In one of the pictures in the album you will see a partial floor separating upper and lower rooms.  Even though the cowboy graffiti indicates the site has been regularly visited since before 1907, that floor remained intact up until 1988 but now, 15 years later, only about a fourth of the floor remains.

Hiking along the road you can see numerous ruins on the opposite side (East) of the canyon.  So bring your field glasses.  Out of the 8 of us who camped that weekend, one couple stayed in camp rather than hiking in to the ruin with the rest of the group.  Staying in camp, they took over 400 photos of moths and butterflies and they were able to find and photograph six new (to them) species.  It is a great place to visit even if you don't bush-whack your way into the ruins.

Enjoy,

Trekker