Tails of the Travelin' Trio: Ruins

On our second day in Flagstaff I (Mike) spent most of the day visiting a couple of the ancient Indian ruins nearby. The first place I went was Walnut Canyon, just a few miles east of the city.

The canyon was very scenic and they had a nice little museum, but the main trail into the canyon and past the ancient cliff dwellings was closed because of rock slides. So all I could see was a short trail along the rim of the canyon, where the ancient Indians had done some farming and built some small dwellings and storage rooms. I did manage to get a picture of some the canyon dwellings, built into natural overhangs about halfway down the canyon.

The canyon was used by ancient Indians for thousands of years, but the cliff dwellings and pueblos were built by people called the Northern Sinagua and inhabited from about 1125 to 1250 AD, just after the eruption of the nearby Sunset Crate volcano. Then, perhaps because of extended drought or exhaustion of local resources, they moved on to other areas such as the Verde River valley to the south or the other pueblos to the north or west.

After this I went to the north of Flagstaff to Wupatki National Monument.

This is an area of desert about 30 miles north of the Sunset Crater volcano Debbie and I visited the day before. Although occupied at about the same time, unlike Walnut Canyon this is an open area of red rock desert with numerous pueblo ruins scattered walking distance (by Indian standards) apart. Each pueblo seemed to be built on a rock outcropping near small box canyons or other flat areas where they grew corn, beans and squash to supplement the wild foods and animals they gathered. It was amazing to me that people in such a barren area and so far from more populated cultures would build 2-3 story brick buildings. All the pueblo ruins were on very scenic sites with good views all around, perhaps because these pueblos were also important trading sites for the Indian cultures of northern Arizona and New Mexico. The volcano, which was active while these pueblos were occupied, may have had religious significance and thus been a tourist spot even a thousand years ago. The Hopi, Zuni and other pueblo people of New Mexico are the likely descendants of the occupants of these ruins and still consider the volcano and the nearby San Francisco Peaks to be sacred areas.

Wukoki Pueblo, which was built to make it look like it grew right out of the rock outcrop.

Wupatki Pueblo, the largest structure on the monument

Blowhole near Wupatki Pueblo. This is a hole connecting to a large underground cavern. There was very cold air blowing out of it fast enough to blow my hat off!