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“Badger Springs Pueblo and Petroglyphs Archaeology and Geology Tour”
February 10, 2024 @ 8:30 am - 3:30 pm
TOUR FULL – WAITING LIST On Saturday, February 10, 2024, join Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s “Badger Springs Pueblo and Petroglyphs Archaeology and Geology Tour” with JJ Golio and Allen Dart in Agua Fria National Monument. This tour will start at 8:30 am at Badger Springs Trailhead parking area ca. 1 mile east of Interstate-17 Exit 256 (Badger Springs), and end at 3:30 pm.
Agua Fria National Monument, located approximately 40 miles north of central Phoenix, was established in 2000 by President Bill Clinton to protect its extensive and important cultural and natural resources. Encompassing two mesas, the canyon of the Agua Fria River, and the river’s tributaries including Badger Spring Wash, the monument protects numerous archaeological sites as well as outstanding geological and biological resources. This Old Pueblo tour will visit Badger Springs Pueblo, a 70-plus room precontact settlement perched atop a high bluff, plus ancient boulder metates and bedrock outcrops with elaborate figurative petroglyphs. It also will stop at a historical arrastre – an ore-grinding mill in which heavy stones attached to horizontal poles radiating from a central pillar were turned by a draft animal or powered by water to drag the stones on the mill’s floor of stone to pulverize ore. Guides also will point out and interpret geologic processes in which Badger Spring Wash cut through the basalt and granodiorite to create colorful red, pink, yellow, green, brown, white, dark gray, and black formations, some including xenoliths.
The request donation is $55 per person ($45 for Old Pueblo Archaeology Center and S’edav Va’aki Museum Foundation members) supports Old Pueblo’s education programs about archaeology and traditional cultures. Donations are due 10 days after reservation request or by 5 pm Wednesday, February 7, whichever is earlier: 520-798-1201 or info@oldpueblo.org.
Flyer: 20240210(v1)BadgerSpringsPuebloPetroglyphsArchaeologyGeologyTourFlyer
Caption: Some petroglyphs along the Badger Springs Trail, photo courtesy of JJ Golio