A day of Ruins

Yesterday we took an awesome trip to ancient Sinaguan ruins, starting at Walnut Canyon National Monument, just some 15 miles southeast of Flagstaff. The canyon was eerily and beautifully quiet, with just a haunting wind whistling through the junipers.

From the viewpoints at the visitor's center and the rim walk, we could see many remains of structures built into the overhangs of the canyon walls. The Island Trail which circles an "island" of rock in the middle of the canyon was closed due to a rockslide where a boulder about 10+ feet in diameter landed on the trail, squashing a railing and a viewing bench. The quiet and the winds whooshing through the canyon provided a humbling, spiritual experience, knowing that peoples eked out a life hundreds of years ago...making the most of the difficult environment.

We hooked back to the east side of Flagstaff and drove on to the Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument where we saw lava flows, red fissure areas on mountainsides, and the Sunset Crater Volcano which erupted almost 1000 years ago. There were miles and miles of landforms coated with black volcanic cinders.

We continued our trip on to Wupatki National Monument, which had an astounding ruin on some large rock formations in a small canyon. There once was about 100 rooms in this structure. The National Park Service had a very informative guide handout which had 20 'stops' along the pathway, to decribe the various rooms' uses and building techniques. It also sadly told of the intrusion of excavating sacred areas and pothunters looting. This ruin was astounding in its presentation and information.

We also walked on and around Wukoki Ruins, a three story structure on a tall, huge rock a couple of miles east of Wupatki. It is believed the Sinaguans who built and inhabited these two ruin sites migrated to Walnut Canyon following the eruption of Sunset Crater Volcano. We were just amazed how these early societies survived and actually flourished for hundreds of years.....

thought for the day....The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. (Einstein)