Walnut Canyon, Wupatki & Sunset Crater

The first picture is of Flagstaff. We've added this picture because we've just heard on the news that it's in flames!! We're now getting worried than an over zealous law enforcer may be following our trail, putting two and two together and making five!









Walnut Canyon - absolute proof that other people lived in America before it was 'discovered' by the Europeans!! The Sinagua are descendants of the the Indian nations still living in America (only the red-hot bits that the Europeans didn't want - unless of course it had gold or silver)!!

Using natural cliff over hangs, the people made walls to close the fronts and little walls to divide them up. This creates a terrace. I'm standing in no. 4 Bancroft Terrace.
This type of dwelling will appear later in the blog at a much more developed place called Mesa Verde.

Further down the road, this is Wupatki. Elvis is demonstrating the power of 'the blow hole'. Cold air trapped below is forced through a small opening, it's not the same as most trapped wind though as this is very cold and only smells of earth.

This dwelling or 'pueblo' was built around the 11th century. Pueblo is the Spanish word for 'house or dwelling' and marks the change of nomad activity to putting your roots down and embarking in a spot of farming and house building. There was no Ikea in those days, so there was no chance of a scarlet settee to match the sandstone walls.




The last of the three places we visited that day is Sunset Crater and it has a say in the other two places. Sunset Crater is the most recent volcano to erupt in the Flagstaff area, 'blahing' its top between 1040 -1100. The poor Pueblo Indians will have wondered what the heck was going on and there's evidence that both of the above sites were deserted when this blew. As you can see, even now, some 900 years later, there still is no growth on the Northern side of the volcano.




We went on a trail around the site and could see the marks from the lava flows and acres of volcanic ash. The poor Indians living here at the time must of thought they had offended some higher authority! Apparently, the people did come back and were able to grow crops again (there's no evidence of them cheating by using grow bags from Wal-Mart).






This is a short but very strenuous hike to the 'Cinder Hill Lookout', the picture shows the San Francisco mountain peaks which look particularly good from up there.

COT Tom-foolery: The two Sissies got the bird noise and the name - the dreaded wood pigeon. That and the noise of Shaz wearing out a tent zip is enough to drive a man to distraction.

Millie- spot on with who last sat in our booth - Grant it was.

Outsourcer, what on earth made you think it was Wyatt Earp?