The third national monument in the Flagstaff area is Walnut Canyon NM to the southeast. Walnut canyon has hundreds of ancient sites in the walls of the canyon and on the rim. Only 25 of the hundreds of cliff dwellings are accessible by the public. We checked in at the visitor center, got our passport stamp and visited the store. We hiked the only two trails in the park, the Rim trail (0.7 miles, 39 feet of elevation gain, 293 calories burned) and the Island Trail (0.9 miles, 312 feet of elevation gain, 688 calories burned). The Island Trail has 736 stairs down and back to the peninsula that pokes out into the canyon. Along both sides of the peninsula are the 25 cliff dwellings open to the public. From the Island Trail, you can see many more cliff dwellings in the opposite sides of the canyon. The trails are all paved and in great shape. The cliff dwellings were right along the trail, and showed signs of abuse by people in the past. The hardiness of the people that had to climb down to the bottom of the canyon and haul water back up to their homes or even all the way up to the rim to water crops is incredible. They even stored extra water in cool rooms to get them through the dry periods of the year. Amazing.
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| Walnut Canyon Entrance Sign |
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| Walnut Canyon and the Island from the back of the visitor center |
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| Cliff Dwelling on the other side of the canyon |
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| Low Ceiling |
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| More Cliff Dwellings |
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| More Cliff Dwellings |
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| Passing through where dwellings used to be. |
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| Leslie on the trail |
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| There are over a dozen Cliff Dwellings in this cliff |
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| David on the trail |
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