After leaving the Petrified forest we headed for Walnut Canyon National Monument.
This map shows you where the canyon is located and you can see the 8 mile loop
where you can see many caves along the sides of the canyon.
This is a model in the visitor center showing what it might have looked like during the time this area was inhabited. They lived in Caves in the rocks, and farmed the Plateau above.
But to see the canyon you must walk down the stairs!
and more stairs actually 240 of them, take your time and look around as you go and you will see the caves around you. The trail thru the canyon is actually 8 miles, but we were only able to access a mile or so because it was closed due to snow and ice!
Can you imagine seeing people coming and going tending their crops on the upper plateau, had to be sure footed, as not to fall down the canyon.
This sign explains that there was a volcano around the Flag Staff Arizona area and of course people were forced to move to another location, away from the area they had lived in for over 400 years. The time line is 1,000 years ago, and the Hopi people came to this canyon to live.
This is an Alligator Juniper Tree. I am always amazed all the different types of trees and bark, this name really fit the tree.
Now you can understand why it was called that!
The Hopi people found it difficult to live here, weather changes and over population eventually forced them to move south.
This is a look at another cave in the canyon, I wish we could have climbed over to check out each one we saw.
Of course when these caves were found in the 1800's they were looted and some destroyed.
In 1915 President Woodrow Wilson declared this a National Monument protecting this site, check out the pictures showing the people who visited the caves at that time, and showed how careless people were. We will never know what treasures people found and took from sites like this, so much information forever lost.
Today a lot of the caves are broken down, walls knocked down, but you can see how simply they lived.
You are allowed to walk inside of them now, they are empty rooms, but you can see where fires were burned to keep warm on cool evenings, and where they cooked. I took this shot from inside looking out, notice the snow in the forest.
They had protection from the hot heat, and from rain and snow, by the overhanging rock.
It is so special to walk the walk where a thousand years ago people lived in this canyon, you can just imagine how difficult life was. It was all about survival, food, and keeping warm or cool depending on the seasons.
You can see in the middle of these caves a doorway. It is original, it was not damaged, it is the only door that was left untouched by the looters.
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