Walnut Canyon/ Cliff Dwellers

Mark and I have been trying to visit as many National Parks and Monuments as we can, mostly because we love it, and partly because it is already paid for, so it helps us save money.  Flagstaff has so many that are really close by, too.  This past weekend that Mark had off we went to the Walnut Canyon National Monument.  Not only was it very interesting to visit, but great exercise too!

Walnut Canyon National Monument entrance

View of part of Walnut Canyon

A cute little old ranger was on the path and told us a little bit about the ruins.  He said that these dark marks on the roof of the rooms is from them using fires to fumigate their storage rooms to get rid of rats and such.  Pretty neat!

A view of the descent.  It wasn't hard going down.

Before we began to go back up, we were greeted with this warning.

Talk about teeny doors!

These were some of the most intact rooms.  This part was even high enough for Mark to stand in!

Again, full rooms still together.  They even had little rock landings in front of them.

We looked happy before we began to climb the stairs back up...

A view of where the cliff dwellers built their houses in the side of the cliffs.

Still smiling a little at the top!

There is a trail that goes along the rim of the canyon, which is where we found this cute baby horny toad scurrying across the trail.

And that was our fun outing to Walnut Canyon National Monument.  It was great to see how preserved it is, but there were some parts that were completely destroyed by looters before it was declared a National Monument.

Next up, we are headed to the Grand Canyon to camp for our anniversary next weekend.  We wanted to go camping for our honeymoon, but so many people discouraged it that we didn't.  So now we are going to make up for missing out 7 years ago!