Palatki Heritage Site

"Palatki Heritage Site: an archaeological site. One of the largest cliffs dwelling with plenty of pictograph and sacred artifacts. It’s a tour that needs to book for $1. The road to the site is bumpy, we to drove high clearance vehicles to get to the place. I think regular cars are doable but need to dive slow. The volunteers are very knowledgeable, kind and friendly."

Amie Sarte

"Amazing, beautiful and great docents. Horrible roads though. going in from Sedona is bad, but not as long as going in from Cottonwood.
Bought the very expensive tour tickets online ($1 each) easy to buy through the AZ gov website.
The docents, were so very helpful, kind and knowledgeable. Loved the stories they had.
The place is beautiful. Not too strenuous, they have some walking sticks you can borrow which were helpful. Bring some water, it's not a long hike, but there are some areas along the tour that have little to no shade."

Erica B

"This location is run by volunteers and requires a $1 reservation made in advance of the tour. We made our reservation on a Sunday morning at 7:30 and took the first tour slot of 9:30am. When we arrived there was no one else in the parking lot and so we had a private tour which was fabulous.
We entered at the museum house and looked around after checking in. We then made our way to the picnic tables to wait for the start of our tour. There we found a bin of walking sticks to choose from to use during the tour.
Our tour guide met us and walked with us up the 60 steps to the first tour site. I have bad feet and thought this would feel like a lot, but it was relatively easy. He explained vegetation, farming and other agriculture of the time along the way. He brought us to our first cliff dwelling view where he explained the difference between pictographs and petroglyphs. He had many props of tools that were used to achieve the scratches, drawings, what some of them meant and the way of life of the tribes that lived there.
Next, we went to another site with a different guide who showed us at least 4 different areas of cave dwellings, ceremony sites, the former spring, the opening to the underworld, where agave was roasted and more. This guide was even more informative about the history of the site, the upkeep of it, why the drawings are losing their visualization, and much more.
The whole tour was about 2 hours and by the time we left there were groups all around of over 12 people a piece. We were able to have our lunch at the picnic tables before continuing to the Honanki site for a self guided tour. We were happy to arrive there with so much knowledge from Palatki. The 2 sites are 20 minutes apart.
We almost drove a couple hours to Walnut Canyon to see Cliff Dwellings, but we are so glad we did this close tour instead and feel like we got more out of it then we would have elsewhere."

Theresa Stubblefield