I Climbed To A Hidden Ancient Ruin and Found Something I’ve Never Seen Before

hey everyone it's Andrew from Desert Drifter today I'm backpacking into a remote Wilderness Area where I'll be hiking camping and exploring for the next 3 days I don't know what we'll find but it'll be an [Music] adventure [Music] [Music] okay so I'm in the vicinity of where I was hoping to Camp um there's kind of like two little Canyons that converge here and so I'm hopeful that there's water somewhere at this Confluence um so I'm going to go down in that wash and check it out see if I can find any water it's damp but there's no water down here let's go up this wash of ways and see if we can find a standing pool of water somewhere these cottonwoods are good signs it doesn't mean that you're going to always find water where cottonwoods are but they're a tree that needs a fair amount of water to grow yeah I couldn't find anything but mud I probably covered close to a mile in total and yeah nothing all right so I've got a make moves because I'm chasing daylight at this point that's kind of how this time of year always feels always chasing that sun I studied my map on the way back and there's a kind of a big band in the canyon up ahead and it looks like this time of year it'll mostly have been in shade all day I'm hoping that in that shaded spot I'll be able to find some water um if there's not water there I don't know we're going to have to get creative then I mean I'm not going to die out here but it would definitely jeopardize the trip and make things not so fun oh baby we are in luck I was walking up on the shelf and I all of a sudden heard a bunch of birds chirping and birds like water so I drop down into the wash and look what we've got up here yep right in this little shaded spot wo that's a relief let's go up top see if we can find a place to set up camp I think this will do found a little bench up here not too far from the water these washes drain cold air at night you know cold air sinks because it's heavier so it's always better if you want to stay warmer to kind of get up above the bottom of the Canyons I think I'm going to drop the bag maybe do a little scouting real quick around here just see see what's in the area and then I'll get camp set up the Scout took a little longer than anticipated the sun's already dropped below the canyon walls so better hustle and get camp set up better grab a layer it's starting to get cold all right got a bed for the night probably should go grab some water before it gets dark got some water losing daylight so I think it's time to get some dinner rolling tonight I'm going to cook up a Thai chicken peanut Curry I use the freeze-dried meals sometimes I mean they're super easy but they're expensive and if I eat those things for more than a day or two I feel like they all taste the same and my stomach's not a huge fan of them people ask me a lot why do you come out here alone in some ways I I really enjoy how focused you have to be out here when you're by yourself and I find our modern world is often pulling us away from being present in the moment and so when I come out of in a place like this alone it sort of brings me back to that original Instinct of of sorts that forces you to to focus on what you're doing to think everything through to engage all your senses in the present moment and you got to be smart about what you carry because obviously it all adds weight but having some fresh veg out here is pretty good [Music] [Music] the rice should be about done if you're curious what else goes in there we've got one of these cubes of Curry mix little sriracha some canned chicken and then a touch of powdered peanut butter and a little brown sugar and then also forgot that over here some uh powdered coconut milk and that is a good meal in the back country my friends think I'm going to eat that before it gets cold and then clean up a little bit and uh hit the hay so I'm ready to roll in the morning got got pretty Frosty last night good morning okay well it was colder this morning than I anticipated so actually started hiking a little bit to warm myself up we're heading towards that interesting looking area I saw on the Scout last night so we'll start there and then keep on moving up Canyon so I decided to leave camp where it was set up and it'll become a base camp you know part of the reason I was looking at this area on the map is there's multiple directions I can go and explore each day and so I think what I'm going to end up doing is head up One Direction today and then tomorrow head the other direction okay at the first stop of the day you guys see that up there that's what I saw from across the way yesterday closer look I guess it's just a Grainery given the size of the doorway and the size of the structure but I think I can climb up this and I'll take a closer look inside so there's a bit of loose Rock up top here so I'm not going to top out on this thing but figured with the camera you guys can get a decent view see if I can lighten this up at home I've seen it a bunch of times now but it still always impresses me how you know this is natural rock this is what they built and it's always such a seamless transition fun start to the day let's keep [Music] moving [Music] wow look at this guys okay here's the first first set of them little piece of pottery they always use natural features to their advantage so there's another one up maybe uh 12 15 ft off the ground up there looks like there's a big wooden beam along the bottom of it here's undoubtedly the living quarters much bigger a little harder to reach I just saw those a bunch of handprints up there looks like maybe is there something something up under there oh yeah more to the left of it there's another wall right over here probably another little Grainery of sorts so here's really the only approach up once you get up on that looks like a fairly easy Traverse over and up into the little Al Cove somebody at some point has stacked some rocks here I wouldn't say they're the most bomber foothold but they'll probably work so I guess I can set this here and film this first move this is probably the Crux of it all so I've got a nice little hand Jam down there maybe a high foot here here okay all right well definitely a tricky approach here's the main structure yeah there's not a whole lot left there's I you see a few little pieces of pottery but [Music] oh [Music] that was cool let's keep heading up Canyon the human history out here is complex and varied these Canyons have been occupied by people for Millennia probably dating back over 10,000 years ago when you're out in these places you can find evidence of that you can see different time periods of occupation even leading up to say you know 1800s 1900s I got to take a lunch break I'm starting to feel it got some smoked Alaskan salmon courtesy of my dad and uncle full of cheese crackers and then of course you got to have some peanut M&M's for dessert okay so we got the belly happy so let's keep pushing up I've probably got maybe another hour or so before I should turn back can start working my way back to Camp it's such an intricate Maze of sandstone and different ecosystems it makes you work for every mile that you cover the Canyons don't give up their secrets easily all right guys so I'm at a bit of a Crux I was literally thinking all right when I round this corner like if I don't see anything I got to head back because I've probably come 5 miles from Camp I got about 2 and 1 half hours of daylight left you know I got to cook there's there's a lot there's a lot going on and I turn the corner and I look up there and first I'm like gosh I think there's a natural arch up there which is cool cuz I can see the sun coming through it but even more exciting I look up there I'm like gosh I think I think I see like a little window a little doorway up there so I got the camera out I zoomed in and although I'm not 100% sure I'm about 90% sure that's that's something up there I mean it's got to be a good 5 to 600 feet off the canyon floor batteries are running low I've got about half liter of water left oh I've been sitting here for like 5 minutes just debating what to do but the longer you debate bait the more time you waste I think I'm going to send it I might regret it but I'm going to try to get up there and back let's go gosh man that's a jumble of boulders it's hard work but it's beautiful wow we've got to be getting so close I don't remember exactly where it was up here I think this is it wow over time the sun has definitely beat it up here's a wall looks like collapsed a little bit still standing there so there's black residue from fires up on the roof here so you know this was definitely lived in at some point in time maybe numerous points in time so look at this right on the floor here there's what I imagine would have been like a fire pit and then there's this Stone sort of sticking in almost like a tombstone would be I'm pretty sure this is called a a reflector Stone I'll have to look that up when I get home and make sure a lot of corn cobs in here so here at the site there's this is known as a collector's pile and it's basically when people have visited this site in the past they've taken what they found and they've put it on this rock but it's generally frowned upon I mean it might seem like oh it's a nice way to show others but you know if archaeologists ever study this they want to know where this stuff was found not here on a on a rock so just leave everything where you find it you know look at it respectfully and leave it as is but since the stuff is here might as well take a look at it definitely this is an old mono like a grinding stone got some pottery this looks like probably the maybe the most impressive piece in terms of design some different styles here so just to the right of the main structure is what seems to be maybe an old Grainery or perhaps another house at some point in time but what's really cool about it's kind of hard to get the angle but look at the roof work here that's still intact you can really see how they built these things man you know I've come upon bigger ruins I've seen cooler artifacts like but I think a combination of just the surprise of it you know having to work for it you know it's I mean I'm not looking forward to climbing 600 ft down and Hiking five miles back to camp but you know that's that's a great analogy for Life a lot of times right things that matter the most take some work and the things that are worth doing [Music] so just fascinating to imagine the life these people lived you know they were just as human as you and I had the same emotions the same needs just living in a different time and a different [Music] place [Music] thanks for coming along with me on this journey so I think I'm going to make this a two-part Series so that this video doesn't get insanely long so next week I'll release the rest of this trip tomorrow I'm going up in a whole different direction no clue what we'll find if you're watching this video a week after it's been released then I'll put the the link to the new video in the description I appreciate you guys coming along on the journey if you watch this far you know kudos to you I'll catch you guys later

Channel: Desert Drifter

Views: 1,821,867

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Id: ypKuDJ-26LM

Length: 22min 38sec (1358 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 03 2024