Tuesday April 5, we…umm….Take It Easy.  (That is a reference to an upcoming blog 🙂 ) Joy and Shiloh were in the truck most of the day yesterday and they need a break.  I do laundry and clean WS, and yes, I do consider doing those little chores, ‘taking it easy’.  I get some good reading time in too.

Wednesday we are off again, west on I-40 this time, to Walnut Canyon which is on the south east edge of Flagstaff.  This is a National Monument of cliff dwellings who’s residents lived here about 800 years ago.  The elevation here is around 7000 feet, and the canyon is covered in forest, mostly pine.

We all get out and leash up, and then I find a sign that says dogs are not allowed on the trails here.  Back we go to JR, and I move her to a place that is completely shaded for Joy and Shiloh.  Also I leave the windows open.  At the visitor center I let a ranger  know  that my dogs are in the truck, in the shade with the windows open.  It’s not a hot day and I don’t feel there will be a problem.  The ranger agrees.

There are two trails here, the Rim Trail, a little over half a mile and fairly easy, and the Island Trail, just about a mile, that goes down into the canyon.  If you don’t mind walking down 240 steps at 7000 feet elevation….and then back up again….the Island Trail is WELL worth the effort!  You walk right among the old dwellings and are allowed inside most of them.

This is a view across the canyon.  I zoomed in so you can see better.  From a distance it looks more like this below:

The canyon wall is about 400 feet tall.  Water  for the people at the bottom, farming at the top, and living somewhere in-between.  I’d say these people were in pretty good physical shape!

For me it’s just fascinating to imagine what life here in this canyon must have been like!  It was a large settlement too, with many, many homes.

So far nothing I’ve showed you is reachable by walking the trails here, only viewable by walking on the 240 steps, desending 185 feet into the canyon.

Now we come to the ‘island’ which is a small mountain we walk around.  All the way around are ancient rooms.  Some were for dwelling, some were for storage.

Inside looking out at the pine forest.

Some we are not allowed inside of.

We have a lovely paved walk way, but not likely there was any such thing 800 years ago!

Within the canyon were…and are…most all the medicinal herbs needed for health.  They knew them all.  They had much more knowledge about the plants than we have today.  A common name for this plant today would be….a weed!

I thought this windblown tree was beautiful!

Happy little lizard sunning on a rock.

Then up the stairs I climb….slowly, I admit.  Joy would not have been a happy camper on this trail, and had the dogs been allowed, once I saw the trail, I would not have taken them on it.  I didn’t go on the Rim Trail this time, because Joy and Shiloh were waiting.  If I get the chance someday though, I’ll go and check that trail out too.  I am in awe of these peeks into the lifestyle of those who lived here long ago.

Back in our own tiny home, the sun sets on another lovely day!