Images of Tonto National Monument – Central Arizona, taken in April 2018.

Set aside as a national monument by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 Tonto National Monument protects the 700 year old cliff dwellings of the Salado peoples of the Tonto Basin. Today much of the land they used for farming has been flooded by Roosevelt Lake, created when the Salt River was dammed in 1906.

There are two well preserved cliff dwellings in the monument. The Lower Cliff Dwellings are accessible via a paved one mile round trip path while the Upper Cliff Dwellings require a reservation to take a ranger guided three mile round trip hike through the desert to the site. I did both and found the hike to the largely unexcavated Upper Cliff Dwelling to be very interesting. Oddly enough, it was the shorter but steeper climb to the Lower Cliff Dwelling that was more of a challenge because, while it was a shorter and paved path, the steep elevation gain made this hike more exhausting. However, the real take-away from the trip is how advanced these peoples were and how impressive it is that the structures they built have largely stood the test of time; most only succumbing to early 20th century pillaging by settlers.