More Travels 4--Variety Spices Travel

Variety Spices Travel

In Flagstaff the giant cell towers that look like straight, tall Douglas fir trees, blend right in to the environment. They don't look a bit out of place. Andy said there was a move to put one in Newtown that was drawing a lot of protest. It wouldn't fit naturally there like it does here.

Chunks of limestone mark the site of ancient homes
in Walnut Canyon. 

Walnut Canyon was home to ancient Hopi and Zuni ancestors, sometime after the eruption of Sunset Crater between 1040 and 1100 A.D. The nomadic wanderers or pit dwelling farmers who lived near the crater probably lost homes and hunting grounds. It was then that they moved into the Kaibab limestone canyons, now called Walnut Canyon.
Recent findings suggest increased rainfall with more water in the canyon, new water-conserving farming practices, trade and a general population increase in the Southwest may have prompted the development of community canyon living between 1125 and 1250 A.D.
The Ancestral Puebloans who lived here were Sinagua, Spanish for "without water." They called their new home talatupqa, meaning "long canyon."  The 20-mile length and 400-foot depth contains mini plant life zones spanning the West from Mexico to Canada. At the top is the Upper Sonoran desert with yucca and prickly pear cactus; at the bottom is riparian riverbank community with boxelder and Arizona black walnut, for which the canyon was named.

Only the few larger rooms represent living quarters.
Most areas have been identified as storage bins.

These Puebloans lived here in cliff dwellings, farming small nooks on the mesa and canyon walls, hunting deer and small game, gathering an assortment of useful plants and trading. Acorns from the gamble oak were a dietary staple, and the fruit of the hedgehog cactus supplied vitamin C, calcium and potassium. Sinagua used yucca for food, soap, fiber and construction materials like thread and rope.
The cliff dwellings of Walnut Canyon were occupied for little more than 100 years. By 1250, the occupants had moved southeast along Anderson Mesa and were eventually assimilated into Hopi culture. Their cliff dwellings, sealed shut when the people left on what the Hopi believe was a religious quest to have all clans come together, remained undisturbed until the late 1800's.

Lennox Crater Trail ends in a field of cinder pieces
where very little can grow.

Then the railroad brought souvenir hunters--women in long dresses and bonnets, men in long-sleeved shirts and ties--all armed with picks and shovels. Theft and destruction prompted local efforts to preserve the canyon. The result was a 1915 declaration by President Herbert Hoover of a national monument. 
In the canyon, the ancient homes usually faced south and east to take advantage of warmth and sunlight. Archaeologists suggest it was the women who built the homes, fashioned from shallow caves eroded out of the limestone cliffs by wind and water. The limestone rock walls were cemented with a gold-colored clay, found in another part of the canyon. Wooden beams reinforced doorways. Walls were plastered with clay inside and out. Men farmed small pockets on the semi-arid canyon rim. They hunted small game and gathered more than 20 species of plants. This life in the canyon probably evolved after departing the rimtop area closer to Sunset Crater.
Lennox Crater Trail at Sunset Crater took us straight up the side of a cinder cone along a path of loose, crumbled cinders for 300 feet in elevation to more than 7,000 feet. Andy said, "It sure feels like more than 300 feet up."

On the south face of Sunset Crater little can
grow in the rough, nutrient-poor cinders.

I agreed.  Tall, straight Douglas firs and Ponderosa pine dotted each side of the trail, but the only ground cover was dropped pine needles and a few small grasses. From the top we could see snow in the crevices of the San Francisco Peaks.
Sunset Crater is a 1000-foot volcanic cone with two lava flows. Erupting sometime between 1040 and 1100 for as long as a year, Sunset Crater is the most recent in a six-million-year history of volcanic activity near Flagstaff. Natural forces that created Sunset Crater also created more than 600 volcanic features in the area, including the San Francisco Peaks, which in turn have affected climate and habitat for all living things in this region.
Sunset Crater started when molten rock sprayed high in the air from a crack in the ground, solidified and fell back to earth as large bombs and smaller cinders. Periodic eruptions with debris around the vent created a 1000-foot cone. The lightest, smallest particles dusted 800-square miles of northern Arizona with ash. Closer to the base, two lava flows--the Kana-a and the Bonito--destroyed all living things in their paths. New gas vents produced spatter cones, and cooling lava pushed through cracks for squeeze-ups. A final burst of activity after six months or a year gave the cone its name. The colorful glow when red and yellow oxidized cinders shot from the vent reminded people of a sunset.

From Desert View Overlook, we can see the
Colorado River far below.

When a volcano erupts, life begins anew. The Lava Flow Trail, a one-mile loop, demonstrated just that. Few trees grow on the south-facing slopes because the cinders don't hold moisture. But no ruts from erosion run-off exist either. The snow melt and rainfall sink in. This would help to explain the adjustments made by ancient Indian farmers. Legends say that the eruption "cleansed" the land, and tribes today still hold these lands sacred. A picture from 1905 of the south face reveals limited growth on the mountain in 100 years, and the eruption blanketed 64,000 acres of farmland and hundreds of pit houses.

Flowers bloom everywhere
in late September.

It changed people's way of life, but it also brought advancement and comunity. History can teach us if we only accept the lessons.
We headed to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon at 1:15 p.m. with the intent of just driving from viewpoint to viewpoint.
Desert View near the East Entrance Station was crammed with foreign tourists. Maybe they were trying to catch the main attractions before the government shuts down on Monday or maybe they were oblivious.

From Lipan Point we could see layers of sedimentary
rock that are millions of years old.

Here Mary Coulter 's Watchtower for the Santa Fe Railroad attracted lots of attention.At Navajo Point a whole group of Germans sat munching on sandwiches. In the distance we could see huge billowing clouds of smoke from a fire somewhere near the North Rim.From Lipan Point visitors see some of the oldest sedimentary rocks anywhere in the canyon.

At No Name Point #1 the views of the
river are hidden by steep rock layers.

At No Name Point #1 the color was magnificent but we lost the view of the river in both directions. Tusayan Ruins and Museum had fewer visitors because the turnoff was inland from the canon rim.

Moran Point is bathed in color in the late afternoon.

Low growing gamble oaks lined the edge
at No Name Point #2.

We walked the trail and read about the ancient farmers who lived "on the edge" in more ways than one back in the mid-1100's. The Tusayan complex was home to about 30 people at its height.Afternoon shadows crept into the canyon by the time we reached Moran Point. The external temperature was only 61 degrees, but with a hot sun, we were comfortable in shirt sleeves.
It took three complete circles around the multiple parking lots at Grandview Point just to find a place to park. We descended a short distance down and climbed back up for better camera angles. "When we were here before in the winter," said Andy, "this trail was solid ice. We only went down a couple switchbacks because it was so dangerous."

Ponderosa pine trees cling
to the sides of the canyon
at No Name Point #5.

The river valley opens up
at Grandview Point Overlook.

Comfortably far from the edge, we
blend in with the scenery.

At the next No Name #2 Viewpoint we met a really nice young couple, probably nor married, with French accents. We traded picture taking talents and left with some prize shots of the canyon and of us.
No Name #3 Viewpoint along Desert View Drive showed the Horseshoe Mountains in the far distance.

Bright sun warms No Name Point #4
in the afternoon as the river valley
gathers shadows. 

No Name #4 Viewpoint had Shoshone Point in the distance on the other side of the canyon. A middle-aged English couple traded pictures with us.
Four o'clock shadows darkened the inner canyon after Yaki Point. Andy played with angles, and I adjusted camera settings to get good pictures. With images of the glorious vistas of the grandest Grand Canyon on earth, we headed back to Flagstaff. At 8,046 feet, as we drove through the divide on Route #180, it was 57 degrees and getting colder.