Palatki ruins and pictographs
— — a wall written on for six thousand years.
Not only on a wall.
“A Sinagua cliff dwelling set into a red sandstone alcove northwest of Sedona, Palatki was lived in between about 1150 and 1300. The Red Cliffs alcove a short walk away holds pictographs that span six thousand years: Archaic, Sinagua, Yavapai, Apache. The Coconino National Forest manages access; visits are by reservation.
Palatki ruins and pictographs, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Palatki Heritage Site sits in the Red Rock-Secret Mountain Wilderness in Coconino National Forest, about ten miles northwest of Sedona, Arizona. The cliff dwellings are Sinagua and were occupied between roughly AD 1150 and 1300, contemporary with Wupatki and Tuzigoot. Two short trails climb to the dwellings and to the Red Cliffs alcove of pictographs. The site is open daily by reservation only, and the access road is unpaved. The name *palatki* is Hopi for red house, given by the archaeologist Jesse Walter Fewkes in 1895.
The dwellings are tucked into a natural alcove in the Schnebly Hill Formation, the same Permian sandstone that gives Sedona its red. Sinagua masons built with stacked sandstone slabs set in clay mortar, and roof beams of juniper and pine survive in places. The pictograph alcove a quarter-mile west holds figures painted in charcoal black, hematite red, and white kaolin clay. The oldest images are Archaic, dating back roughly six thousand years; the most recent are Yavapai and Apache, painted within the last few centuries.
Access is by reservation through Recreation.gov; walk-ins are not accepted. The site is open daily and is staffed by Coconino National Forest volunteers, including the Friends of the Forest. Forest Road 525 from Highway 89A is graded dirt and passable to most passenger vehicles in dry weather; rain closes it. Trails to both alcoves total under a mile round-trip with moderate elevation gain. A small visitor cabin at the trailhead holds historical exhibits from the homesteading era that followed the Sinagua.