Old Caves Crater

Coconino National Forest

Click for map.

Old Caves Crater boasts a different sort of ruin, from people who made their homes among the small "caves" of gas bubbles in the old lava rocks. Unfortunately, some of the different character of this one is "heavily disturbed", as the kiosk at the start warns me. This was the last known Sinagua settlement in the area, but there are a couple more "excavation-quarry settlements" like this one in the area to the east. Anyway, it's a short trail, so no harm in going to see. I'll tag the peak, too. The settlement is quite close to the top.

Kiosk full of information and a trail register full of people who probably won't be getting lost.

It's a wide path through the cinders surrounded by ponderosa. There seem to be quite a few extra paths as well. It's generally clear which is the official one. There are signs for the loop around the bottom to the west and later the one to the east. I follow the arrow for the crater summit rather than the loop.

Old Caves Crater up ahead. It only rises about 400 feet.

The climb is gradual at first, but then gets going in some long switchbacks. Never particularly steep, but it'll make you work a little.

A scattering of homes in the flats between volcanoes.

The San Francisco Mountains.

Near the top, I am struck by how completely the juniper have taken over leaving almost no ponderosa. This is particularly odd because the ponderosa are the ones that usually take over in the higher elevations. The rocks are undoubtedly to blame and they are changing too.

O'Leary Peak in the distance.

There is no sign to point out the junction near the top of the crater. I go right to get out onto the shoulder where the settlement once was. There is nearly nothing left of the walls of the 30-40 rooms that were once up here according to the sign below.

Clusters of red stones show where there were once rooms of the settlement here.

O'Leary Peak and Sunset Crater to the north.

The lack of walls doesn't mean there's nothing to see here. There are still the caves and tunnels. I don't see it at first, but after looking through a few caves I finally notice that the tunnels are all very regular. The scramble through would have been a belly crawl, but they have definitely been cut that big. They aren't natural.

A pair of caves.

A tunnel between cave openings. Both are lit by the afternoon sun now.

A second tunnel between caves.

Tunnel into a space nearby to the original cave.

Another sort of excavation.

There are more and more caves down the side of the hill.

Please do not gather up pottery shards for display. It just makes it harder for the archaeologists who don't see it where it was left and easier for the guy who wants to walk off with it.

Then I head up to tag the peak. It's not all that much higher.

The view out east has a lot of the current residents of the area in it.

I had planned to go over the top and come back along the eastern side of the loop trail, but notice there's supposed to be a benchmark on the shoulder with the caves. I head back and spend some time wondering what a "4x4x4 foot vertical cave" might be. I can't find it or the benchmark that is a certain distance from it. Then I head down the way I came and explore a little of the unofficial trails around the bottom.

A bakers dozen of deer who definitely noticed me be weren't really ready to react. The bearing tree is marked so faintly it may as well be blank, so that's another benchmark I won't get.

Old Caves is just a little hill.

©2019 Valerie Norton
Written 23 Dec 2019