Doing Things Around Flagstaff

We were busy little beavers in the Flagstaff area.  After Grand Canyon, we hit Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, Wupatki National Monument, and Walnut Canyon National Monument, over several days.  Wupatki and Walnut Canyon both have pueblos, which the kids decided they very much liked.    

  The pueblos at Wupatki are ground level.  There are a lot of areas that you can walk into, they have a trail guide to give you more information about everything, and the pueblos behind the visitor center make for a nice walk.  It did rain while we were touring these, but then we got a beautiful rainbow as our reward for continuing the walk.            

There's a blowhole towards the end of the trail.  Despite the rain in the air, it was still strong enough to blow K's hair up.  The boys then turned it into a spitting contest.  Yes, it does throw spit right back at you.  Now I've saved you the need to experiment on that one yourself.              

  The pueblo on the Wukoki trail.  We got to climb all the way to the top of this one and check out every room.  The kids really enjoyed this one.  And I'm sure that the people who were lying down and resting at the top have by now recovered from my children enjoying this pueblo.            

The pueblos at Walnut Canyon are cliff dwellings.  The stone was weathered away, leaving a shelf for a roof and plenty of space for living and storing.  Most of these dwellings (on the island, anyway) are open to go into, which the kids adore.  These were so impressive because the dwellings are literally in the side of the canyon.  We pondered for a while HOW the Native Americans got into these holes in the cliffs to make a home there.        

G fit in very nicely.  He recently surpassed Bill in height, so if G can fit in, any of us can.  There are more than 250 stairs to navigate on the Island Trail, so it was quite the workout for  those of us with back/hip/achilles difficulties.  But it was definitely worth the climb.  We even met a lady on our way down and her way up who had just had a knee replacement within the  last couple of months who made the entire climb and hike.        

The trees at Walnut Canyon are fascinating as well.  I laid on the ground to take this picture, and then mistakenly asked NB to help me get the dust off my back.  He beat me pretty hard to get all that dust off.  Should have seen that one coming!              

G at the A'A Trail at Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument.  This trail showed a lot of the big rocks from the eruption.  The campground where we stayed was a bed of cinders.  It made for an interesting campsite, but all I could think when the kids were running around was how difficult cinders would be to pull out of knees.  The kids enjoyed the sound the rocks made when thrown at the larger rocks.            

The Lava Flow Trail was a much longer trail than the A'A, but still only about a mile.  Really extreme landscape, though.  The eruption was about a thousand years ago, and it's amazing how rocky the terrain still is.  The kids are getting an amazing education on geology from this trip!