I Explored an Ancient City HIDDEN in the Mountains...Then I found this on my Drone!

tucked away in these mountains lies the ruins of a civilization that existed more than 700 years ago they settled the area for a few hundred years and then they just left now there's no exact reason as to why but there is many speculations now once we're done here I'm going to drive around the surrounding area and fly my drone up into those same mountains with the amount of people that settled here and the numerous caves in the area there's no telling what we might find the cliff dwellings that we will be exploring are referred to as Tanto National monument and they are located 2 hours Northeast of Phoenix in Roosevelt Arizona it is a half a mile hike from The Visitor Center to the lower Cliff Dwellings with an elevation gain of 362 ft it was a little warm that day but the views of Roosevelt Lake down below and the sorro cacti make it all worth the while these Cliff Dwellings date back to the 1300s and were the work of the salato people the term salato comes from the Spanish name Rio salato or the Salt River which is what pours into Roosevelt Lake and it represents a group of people from a variety of different cultures that settled in this area between the years of 1250 and 1450 one of the more fascinating things I find about this group of people is it wasn't one specific tribe but a variety of different communities that came together to trade share skill sets and learn from one another they were also a peaceful community and there is no evidence that suggests Warfare of any kind it was pretty surreal to be able to walk through the homes of these people that had existed so long ago and to literally see where they left their mark on some of these walls you can easily make out the original handprints from when they applied plaster [Music] [Music] now it makes perfect sense as to why anyone would settle here Rich fertile soil a water source combined with a sophisticated irrigation system along with farming and plenty of game to hunt which then begs the question why did they leave there's many theories as to why the salato people moved on but the most likely of scenarios suggest that it was due to volatile weather patterns and a depletion of resources as the region became more Aid important plants and animals decreased in numbers to make matters worse there would be some Seasons where they would have to survive through droughts while other Seasons they had to survive through heavy flooding this made it difficult to thrive in the tono Basin and over time people moved on in search of a new place to call home so we just pulled over along the side of the road you can see Roosevelt Lake right behind me and we're at an area of Interest this is where I was at I think last week I flew my drone up this mountain here and I found a few caves and there was bones in one of them interesting fact that I found out through one of the guides at tono National Monument is I guess there's about 199 of these little caves all throughout the area and there's quite a few around here so we're going to get the Drone up there and see what we can find [Music] [Music] [Music] throughout the rest of our drone exploration today it's important to keep in mind that just because we see a cave doesn't necessarily constitute it as a dwelling that the salato people may have inhabited but it is estimated that as many as 4,000 people lived in the area some 700 years ago I was even told by a local that you never know what you could find out in these parts from the cliff dwellings and the mountains to the shorelines of Roosevelt Lake you could be hiking just about anywhere out here and stumble across a relic of the past being that I have a drone we're going to poke our head into as many of these little caves and crevices as we can at least until the batteries run out [Music] [Music] while many of these caves may appear as if they were dug out by man that is simply not the case the cliff dwellings that we explored earlier were formed by the process known as spawn sping spalling is the result of cracks forming in rocks that are enlarged over long periods of time usually by water until pieces of rock fall off and it makes sense too A lot of these little caves and alcoves are on the edges of cliffs where there tends to be a lot of water runoff especially in the springtime over the course of a few thousand years water runoff seeping into the tiniest little cracks can form some of the most unique geological formations that being said there is a fine line between what Mother Nature creat creates versus what man creates and if you look closely here you can see what appears to be a partial wall that was built in the same style as the previous Cliff Dwellings judging by the layout of the Rocks around this little Al Cove it wouldn't surprise me if this was also another home to the solato people throughout the rest of this flight I continued to find numerous small caves most of which were pretty shallow but some of them were rather deep I didn't want to risk crashing my drone and turning this into a search and rescue mission so I maintained a safe distance I continued to search cave after cave but nothing of any real significance turned up other than some bird poop and some small animal bones [Music] the next day so we were driving around Roosevelt Lake yet and I just happened to glance across the lake and I saw this little dark spot that really caught my eye and because of what we're doing here we're exploring every little cave or crevice that we see in the mountains I think what we're going to do is we're going to get my bigger lens on here and I'm going to zoom in so that way I can show you guys what I'm talking about this is what I was telling you guys about stay focused on the center of the screen and then as we zoom in you can see that dark spot actually looks like there's probably a couple of them in the middle there but there's the bigger one and if we have time we're going to try to drive over there and get as close as we can I don't know that the road goes out that far but that's exactly why we have the Drone we can fly down far enough we could probably see if there's anything lurking in [Music] [Music] there just down the road from me there is this really interesting and beautiful part on the Salt River where these two rock walls come close to meeting and the Salt River cuts right through it and there's an area down there behind one of the rock walls where there's like a Ravine and I want to check that out and the reason why is because about a month and a half ago if you guys have seen my previous videos there's an area out in the Superstition Mountains that I found where there was a Ravine and there was a bunch of like vegetation growing at the bottom but that vegetation was a bunch of trees brush you name it and it was covered ing up this little cave dwelling in this ruin that I found which I have yet to hike down to but that's why we're going to go check out this Ravine down the road here but real quick we're going to get the Drone up in the air and fly up to the top of these mountains here and just see what's up there [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] now we are on the other side of Roosevelt Lake you can kind of see it in the background there we got one drone battery left and they take forever to charge this will probably be our last stop here but over there on the rock wall there is one two three four slits into the side there I want to go over there with the Drone and see what's inside now I'm a little nervous about this right now the wind is pretty mellow but every I don't know a few minutes or so the wind just picks up and it's like which my drone can handle but a few things whenever it's windy out it wears down on the battery cu the propellers have to fight that much more to keep stable and number two we got to fly it way over there and I'm also worried about it smacking the Rocks if it does crash this is going to turn into a search and rescue mission pretty quick challenge accepted [Music] that's what makes me nervous [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Jessie's Drone Adventures

Views: 44,916

Keywords: exploring ancient ruins, 700 year old cliff dwellings, searching for ancient civilizations, tonto national monument, ancient life, terrifying discoveries, google earth finds, mysterious caves, ancient ruins, forgotten civilzations, best ancient ruin hike, cliff dwellings, cave dwellers, archaeology discoveries

Id: CRRDWlIQetk

Length: 15min 56sec (956 seconds)

Published: Mon May 27 2024