Walnut Canyon

Finally, a post on the right day!

We hare having a wonderful time up in Munds Park.

It is so much fun to spend some time with Hubbys' Aunt J and cousins.

Aunt Js' Hubby, Uncle D was able to come up too last night and spent most of the day with us today.   Now he has to head back to the real world and work.

Today we went to Walnut Canyon.

There are amazing cliff dwellings in the sides of the canyon.

It's hard to imagine living in the canyon like the Indians that lived there did almost 1000 years ago.

We did a great loop around the part of the canyon.

There were 240 steps down.  Along with downward sloping walkways.

Which, of course, means you are coming up 240 steps and upward sloping walkways.

Phew!

Here are D&E with cousin L.  Sweet girls.

The floor of the canyon.  Very neat to see the green floor and trees growing.

Along the sides of the canyon, there were also trees growing.  Seemingly out of nowhere.  Many coming right out of cracks in the rock.

Looking across the canyon to some of the cliff dwellings.

The openings can be seen in the middle of the photo.  Amazing to think of how they got to these homes.  And the making of the homes.

Cousins.  The kids were much quicker than us adults.

Looking across the canyon.  Very cool.

Uncle D and the kids walking along the dwellings.

I love the diagonals in the sandstone.

The diagonals were created by the water when this was an ocean, many many years ago.  Amazing.

Peter, Uncle D, and D at the dwellings.

We had a great walk.

And it felt really good when we reached the top.

The cliff dwellings were so neat to see.

And it was the perfect length walk for us to do today.

Saving our energy for our big trip to the Grand Canyon tomorrow.

For lunch we stopped in Flagstaff at  Diablo Burger.

It was delicious.  And how cool are is it that they brand the english muffin?

I got the "Cheech" burger.  It had guacamole, pepper jack cheese, and jalapenos.

And the fries.  Yum.  They were seasoned with a great mix of herbs.  Oregano, rosemary, parsely.  Perfect.

Pretty sure none of us are going to want to eat tonight.

potd #282.  Modern day cliff dwellers.  So nice to see them getting along so well.  All great kids.