The story of how they came to be is interesting. Most of the Sinagua (ancestors of the Hopi) lived on the plains around Flagstaff. But about 1,000 years ago the area suddenly became a very active volcanic field, producing more than 600 volcanoes. Who knew?
The largest of the volcanoes is a part of the San Francisco Peaks. Today it is 12,633 feet high, but before it blew its top it had an elevation of about 16,000 feet.
At any rate, the point of all this is that the natives of the area moved away, some to Walnut Canyon, to escape the eruptions. Walnut Canyon wasn't far from all the volcanic activity, but it offered protection.
Like many of the canyons we have seen on our trip, the canyon was made by a river. It includes hard and soft rocks, and the river cut into the softer material, leaving protected ledges. It was on these ledges that the Sinagua (literally "without water") built their homes.
Walnut Canyon is about 400 feet deep:
On the loop trail, we dropped into the canyon quickly:
The first view we had of the cliff dwellings was by looking across the canyon to the other side.
We rounded a corner, and suddenly, we came upon the first of several dwellings and storage rooms:
A panel shows how the people lived. These dwellings are at 6 to 7,000 feet in elevation, so it does get cold here in the winter.
Below is a photo of the ceiling of a dwelling, which shows the black left by the smoke from the fire pit, and also shows areas where chunks of stucco have fallen.
Some of the dwellings were better preserved than others:
The canyon is lovely, with a wide variety of plants and interesting rock formations:
This is Gamble oak, named after William Gamble of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia:
On the sunny side of the canyon one finds prickly pair cacti:
As we ascended back to the rim, we saw more dwellings across the gorge:
On top of the rim were dwellings of another period of time, like those we saw on the Grand Canyon rim:
Near these dwellings was a Kiva, or ceremonial pit, partially underground. At the Museum of Northern Arizona (in Flagstaff), we learned that archaeologists have found remnants of surprisingly colorful and sophisticated murals painted on the walls of one of these Kivas. Below is a reproduction of the mural, more than 500 years old. The ladder was used for entering and exiting the Kiva.
Beautiful!
