THE BEST ANCIENT RUIN HIKE IN AMERICA - THE DEVIL'S CHASM - Sierra Ancha Cliff Dwellings, Arizona

one of the most epic ancient ruin hikes in america exists in the extremely remote sierra ancha mountain range of arizona the devil's chasm lives up to its name and the sight of the ruins must be earned this ended up being one of the most incredible ancient ruins hikes i've ever completed we really enjoyed the challenge it was not easy and if you decide to go i hope this video can give you an idea of what to expect she what's up everybody we're about to go on a hike through the sierra ancho wilderness um to go find some cliff dwellings out there the devil's chasm we're parking here because the road in was a little rough but it's about to get rougher so i believe overall end up hiking somewhere between seven and nine miles okay so it is hot today but we are prepared we got plenty of water plenty of food some sunscreen long sleeves all that stuff let's go explore the sierra entre cliff dwellings [Applause] national forest sierra entrecliffe dwellings prehistoric cliff dwellings are located in several of the rugged canyons within and near the sierra entre wilderness they were built between 1280 and 1350 80 by indians known presently as the salado why they chose to utilize this challenging environment environmental zone is not yet fully understood cliff dwellings are fragile and irreplaceable please do not climb on the walls or roof or cause any other form of injury or disturbance [Applause] [Applause] nice it's water all right we found some water we've read that this see our ancho wilderness area has an abnormal amount of rattlesnakes so we don't got our boots or our jeans first have to be careful if you come out here don't mess anything up twenty thousand dollar fine or imprisonment is it cold not perfectly cold [Applause] time for snakes oh [Applause] yeah shoot do you think that's what that is well i guess we'll find out i bet you there's a lot of poison ivy and poison oak out here there you go nice little waterfalls right here i think so you kind of mentioned staying in the valley when you can wow beautiful waterfalls are we about to cross [Applause] okay man you could take a nice little pool uh plunge right there steep [Applause] right um i think so man uh yeah maybe could we have gone higher up there we lost right now all right let's see i'm glad we checked this out though that was cool i might go swimming in that on the way back i kind of want to i kind of want to jump in on that not jump in but kind of want to get in the water when we get back [Applause] nice you found it bro this is why i bring him you always find the trail bro okay nest oh i didn't see that let's get out of here [Applause] wow dude that's a good waterfall right there this is the swimming hole right here i mean i'd be a little worried about snakes under these some of these boulders but look at that that's just coming down right there a little slip and slide right um [Applause] see here should we just push through got this yeah sure we'll find the good news is it's not whatever wherever the trail is is not far somewhere in between this valley let's watch out for snakes nice that's it we got we just go down too deep somehow you good thanks bro all right easy right through that oh the cave on the other side of the stream i guarantee there would be or would have been artifacts actually talking about where that boulder big yeah natural shelter man this is spectacular it feels like we're going back up uh black canyon i know right we're about 1.5 miles in got another mile and a half maybe another mile really we're a lot further in than that i'm just talking from the trailhead all right we're hoping that this stuff we're brushing up against is not poisonous or poison ivy if it is our legs are as good as screwed that's okay we'll go to the pharmacy this hike is incredible both of our heart rates are basically maxed out we've got these waterfalls endless waterfalls by us in the stream heading toward the devil's chasm hey as long as we're going that way we're making progress watch out for snakes how much elevation gain are we getting two thousand seven hundred yeah probably 3 000 feet of elevation gain out here in the arizona desert this is a great practice this july i'm climbing some 14ers so i'm sorry oh you're good go ahead a lot of people say if you don't climb 13 000 feet for 14 it i think you said thirteen thousand you're saying three thousand as long as you yeah so 14 it doesn't count unless you climb at least 3 000 feet that's what something you say we got a side stream over here what do you think i bet this way take a little break my heart rate's i don't know if it's maxed out but it's close i guess maxed out would be a heart attack right yeah maybe when you put it that way so so we're basically bushwhacking it out here the trail's not exactly solid don't think a lot of people are coming out here if you do decide to come out here make sure you're prepared this is kind of gnarly water something to cover your skin with plenty of food make sure most importantly you're in shape and that you can handle this you're mobile enough to do this hey why did the water stop is it underneath the ground or was there a canyon split like that just happened i didn't even see it but i know it just happened uh i bet you that is one heck of a waterfall right there when it floods [Applause] [Applause] on it how far have we gone since the trailhead drew uh since the trailhead we are almost a mile and a half in so we got another mile another mile how far along are we since we started four miles four miles in so we're going to end up going 10 miles today yep nice all right what's up so there's ropes oh man we are exposed from the to the sun now yeah i don't want to trust that rope where's that rope you're talking about gotcha so you careful need a spot yeah right there get here i had a boy's legs to do it easy no ropes needed oh boy so what'd you do you just kind of i climbed up that crack until i got to that little bowl i got one foot there in the where it was slippery right a little bit forward your foot would be a little bit more secure it's not so clear steep but yeah you made it okay now i'm have to get out of your way actually these ropes what do you think uh the blue one was secure as of july 2nd 2022. yeah but i didn't use it no that's a tight squeeze right there it is so definitely be careful wow all right drew you got it almost wonder if you could even shoot through over here possibly careful so for anybody watching this we're thinking maybe you need to shoot through right here actually maybe don't go this route that was pretty gnarly my brother's a pretty good climber um but yeah let's try shooting through here so i did go through that hole it's a little tight be careful regardless of which way you go it's a little a little this is basically a bushwhack that we're doing it's not really a trail anymore wow a lot of wasps let's not get stung by those that would suck this be a gnarly place to get caught in the flash floods hope that doesn't happen more rope i just feel like the right side looks better to me yeah i feel like i feel like you can climb that right side no problem just be careful you got it my brother has climbed 30 plus 14ers is that right in colorado that's a good eye for these things better than me i'm about to bag my first 14er this month look we got some tadpoles in this little pool right here a lot of them yeah this has been like my heaven as a kid load finding tadpoles all right i don't think the rider left i mean the ropes left so i feel like maybe this is it yeah but it's just steep over there i feel like the only reason the ropes left is because they had something to tie it to you know what i mean there's nothing to tie it to over here it just seems like the ledges are a little bit wider over here by the way this is not advice for anybody watching this like if you feel like the rope's the best way i just don't like trusting ropes you got it yeah it seems like the best route if you're a good climber and you don't you don't need the rope a attaboy [Music] yeah it seems like the best route you always just went straight up the middle yeah i climbed that crack over there as long as i could this you just went up the crack right here probably the best so you got this rope tied to this tree here but to me i don't know if they just tied it there because it was the only place to tie it's not really any place to tie over here i don't like trusting ropes my brother doesn't like trusted ropes and it seemed logical just to come up this way um not advice it's just what we did [Music] i like this part we're a little more exposed to the sun it is hot but uh this reminds me of some of the little slot valleys i guess this reminds me of some of the little slot canyons near cone ridge and utah not quite as steep as this so [Applause] huh we can't see it right now we can't see it yet we gotta go around this i don't know i'll follow you that sun is beating how good do you filter how how good do you think your filter would work in this pool right here it tastes nasty shop for snakes so we're getting closer this is a very difficult hike i think it's going to be well worth it uh nature water we are up here oh what do you think about the climb so far it's deep there's been a lot of wasps it's been pretty fun wasps suck but uh we haven't seen any snakes yet knock on wood we'll do that in a little bit right there right behind you we took a little break it was hot luckily these clouds have just came over us luckily or unluckily we'll see if it rains or not but it was getting pretty hot there all right back at it almost there oh my shoes are untied one second bro all right steep okay uh [Applause] this is a wicked trail [Music] all right i see him waiting out oh wow there we are we made it we have service i made it man wow excuse my breathing everybody this is a wild hike this is the most epic ancient ruins hike i've ever done yes we are the devil's chasm careful what's up i made it my brother's a trailblazer i really appreciate his leadership on this hike today wow look at that view arizona baby drew you okay cut yourself you bleeding be very careful you're hiking through here guys this is some gnarly stuff you all right bud gotcha wow i've always wanted to come here we made it it's big man how did they do this wow so you can see the holes where the logs used to be [Applause] i think all these little holes you can actually see the wood's still in there ancient wood this wood would have been put here almost a thousand years ago and so this would have been a multi-story building [Music] it just doesn't i can't wrap my mind around why they built this here i mean it's a great view but we went through a lot to uh to get up here i'm sure that they were a lot better climbers obviously but i i'm just trying to think about the economics of what allowed them to even get resources for them to even be up here and supposedly you keep going 18 miles not supposedly for a fact you keep going that way 18 miles and you run into some more ruins let's say you said a 17 18 mile loop loop so maybe you run it he said a different different canyon you probably run into it a little quicker but to get back to your car that's crazy still i would love to do that luke but i think this is our turnaround spot this is an incredible hike but be prepared when you come this is the most epic hike i've ever done to a ruin but you got to bring food water and make sure you have some type of protection from the sun because it got gnarly definitely would have had a roof right around there nice this isn't too common i wonder if this is a recent update somebody like keep it how it was yeah i don't know yeah this is cool oh nice it's going to spit us out on the other side [Applause] very small openings this is a t-shaped door right here oh there's fires right here obviously this is still there ash i guess really yeah it's black up against uh that's awesome this right here is a t-shaped door or window shaped window in this case uh dr steve lexin is an archaeologist i believe this was a common sign all throughout um the the north where uh costas grandes is and pakime mexico and chihuahua all up into mesa verde choco canyon and even here and i even saw one down at piedras negatives in guatemala in the mayan sites these t-shaped windows right here represented some type of authority status symbol possibly this is the best guess no one really knows but it is very common the uh museum in mexico city the anthropology museum actually has a display kind of talking about it a little bit wow this is scarier here awesome another fire pit [Applause] [Applause] my brother is bigger than i am there's a grinding stone this is awesome all right now the hard part starts and that's our journey back down the mountain which is extremely steep we're just bushwhacking really there's no trail and uh we're gonna take our time we're gonna be safe good job for snakes here's the rope it uh appears to be pretty solid july 22 or sorry july 2nd 2022 we've decided not to use it um but if you do use it give it a good tug make sure it's solid make sure that tree looks like it's solid too be careful out here feels pretty good we made it out now we got a two mile walk two mile walk back to the car but we were out of the mountains that was a fun one we're gonna go get a hotel some food hot showers and some sleep thanks for watching everybody

Channel: INCREDIBLE HISTORY

Views: 613,630

Keywords: Ancient Ruin, Devils Chasm, Arizona Hiking, Hiking, Sierra Ancha, Cliff Dwellings, Anasazi, Salado

Id: R0iI_LOuxJQ

Length: 42min 1sec (2521 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 20 2022