BGuthrie Photos: AZ -- Walnut Canyon Natl Monument

AZ -- Walnut Canyon Natl Monument:

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. WALNUT_120720_006.JPG: In memory of the Pioneer Women of Arizona
2. WALNUT_120720_022.JPG: A Home for All: You are standing on the edge of a biological "hot spot" -- a concentrated area of plant and animal productivity. Within these deep, tight, water-carved meanders is extraordinary plant diversity, along with a rich assortment of wildlife habitats. Descend into Walnut Canyon and you'll notice a change with each turn of the trail. You'll see plants and animals from mountain and desert environments living almost side by side. You'll discover why this intimate canyon was and is invaluable to its inhabitants.
3. WALNUT_120720_029.JPG: Banana Yucca
4. WALNUT_120720_045.JPG: Cliff Homes and Canyon Life: As recently as the mid-1200s, families lived, worked, and played in Walnut Canyon. Tending crops on the rim, traveling to father food, and collecting water from the canyon bottom were part of a daily routine. It may be difficult to imagine living here, constantly negotiating this rugged terrain. Our motorized lives make it easy to forget that, throughout most of history, peoples' existence was much more physical. Who Were They? Walnut Canyon's farming community flourished between roughly 1125 and 1250. By this time, people across the Southwest were united by corn cultivation and village life. But their architecture, pottery, and tools differed across space and time. Archeologists used these differing traits, which occurred in patterns on the landscape, to describe and label cultural traditions such as Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) and Sinagua. Walnut Canyon, with its compact villages of adjoining, rectangular room blocks (called pueblos by the Spanish) and plain brown pottery, lies within the heart of the Sinagua tradition.
5. WALNUT_120720_052.JPG: A Complex Community: The Island Trail, visible below you, follows the sharp meander of Walnut Creek. Many cliff dwelling rooms, unique in this area, were built throughout the canyon at the level of this trail. On both rims are numerous pithouses and pueblos. On the very top of the rock promontory or "island" before you, are more rooms. Walls were constructed to block easy access to them. Maybe this intriguing arrangement of sites met seasonal, security, social, or ritual needs. Depending on the calculation method used. Walnut Canyon's peak population may have been as few as 75 people or as many as 400. Why Here? Walnut Canyon was known and used by people for thousands of years before it became a focal point for a community during the 1100s. Changing natural and social conditions across the region undoubtedly played into the decision to settle here. By 1100 the Southwest's population had swelled. People were looking for new places to live and farm. There may have been other attractions. Some tribal consultants believe people built here for refuge and protection, or for isolation and ceremonial preparation.
6. WALNUT_120720_082.JPG: Pricklypear
7. WALNUT_120720_089.JPG: A Time of Change: When a volcanic eruption occurred near what is now Flagstaff, Arizona, people lost homes and lands they had cultivated for at least 400 years. A major life event for locals, the eruption was also visible to large population centers across the Southwest. Many people knew something significant had happened. In the decades that followed, sparsely inhabited areas like Walnut Canyon and nearby Wupatki became densely settled. By 1150, clustered communities replaced scattered farming hamlets -- the result of displacement by the eruption, immigration of new families, growth of the local population, or all of these. Trade networks expanded and society became more complex as people, goods, and ideas converged. Across the landscape of the San Francisco Peaks, society flourished as people tried living together in larger numbers.
8. WALNUT_120720_120.JPG: Tension and Harmony: With its step and sheer walls, Walnut Canyon provided homebuilding advantages along with controlled access. Living here, people were situated to monitor their world. This was not uncommon; most villages of the time had some form of passive defense and line-of-sight communication. Horizontal ledges served as pathways connecting home to home, such as those visible across the canyon. Game trails, natural breaks, and side canyons were the avenues linking the rim to the canyon floor. People also built trails, complete with graded switchbacks. "... a stratum of rock, softer than those above, had been hollowed out by the action of time... The over-hanging cliff made a roof two hundred feet thick. The hard stratus was an everlasting floor. Thus the houses stood along in a row, like the buildings in a city block, or like a barracks." -- Willa Cather describing a visit to Walnut Canyon, in Song of the Lark, 1912
9. WALNUT_120720_123.JPG: The wall had collapsed here the previous year and closed the park for many months.
10. WALNUT_120720_136.JPG: Alligator Juniper
11. WALNUT_120720_167.JPG: The Perfect Shelter: For each room tucked into this rock alcove, nature provided the back wall, floor, and leak-proof ceiling; no excavation was needed. Builders simply laid up unshaped blocks of limestone for side walls, enclosed the front, and opened their doorway to the canyon. Here, only two walls remain. How to Treat a Wall: Many hands have been at work on these walls: the women who first skillfully plastered them, the vandals who defaced them, and the preservation specialists who now repair them. All of the dwellings along this trail have been either stabilized (stones reset and mortar patched) or restored (partially rebuilt). Still, original mortars remain in many walls. They are brown, red, gray, and gold-colored, have hairline cracks, and incorporate small pebbles and charcoal. Help us keep the need for modern treatments to a minimum by keeping hands off and watching where you step.
12. WALNUT_120720_179.JPG: Problem Solving: Time has worn away details than once made these rooms complete. Still, bits of evidence tell us people devised ways to make their home comfortable, durable, and suitable for changing circumstances. Rooms were added as families grew or storage needs increased. Some rooms in Walnut Canyon show a surprising degree of remodeling at various times suggesting generations of reuse. Regularly replastering of outside walls kept moisture out and walls sound. Inside walls were plastered too, making the room well sealed and a bit brighter. Notice the smoke-blacked wall inside this room, perhaps from warming fires. But fire was also used to fumigate and to harden the clay. Layers of clay turned uneven bedrock ledges into smooth level room floors. As floors wore, new layers were simply applied over old. The clay floors have all eroded in these rooms. Modern Solutions: Look at the overhang above you. With this particular room block, rain and snowmelt dripped off the rock and fell on or near the front walls. After the surface plaster eroded, water seeped into the walls and eroded the mortar between stones. We don't know if the residents devised a way to redirect water away from the walls but you can see our solution. The "worm-like" features fixed to the rock create new driplines further out from the wall, which reduces direct erosion. Artificial silicone driplines are an inexpensive and non-damaging preservation technique. The front walls of these rooms have received extensive repairs over the years. No original mortar remains; all that you see here, including fingerprints, is modern.
13. WALNUT_120720_202.JPG: Life on the Shady Side: The twists and turns of Walnut Canyon create a patchwork of sun and shadow to which plants and animals respond. On this side of the "island," you walk in shaded forest among ponderosa pine and moisture-loving Douglas fir trees. Just across the canyon, desert dwellers like juniper and yucca grow on hot, dry, sunny slopes. How many different plants and animals have you seen already? Chances are, all would have been used in some way for food, clothing, shelter, or tools and utilitarian objects.
14. WALNUT_120720_230.JPG: From Ocean to Alcove: Limestone forms the massive overhang above you and the ledge you are standing on. In between, softer layers of silty limestone have retreated, eroded away. All of the cliff dwelling rooms in Walnut Canyon -- more than 300 -- were built in natural alcoves like this. If you have visited Grand Canyon, you have met these rocks before. This is the Kaibab Formation, the rim rock of both canyons. Below, as in Grand Canyon, are the Toroweap Formation and Coconino Sandstone.
15. WALNUT_120720_241.JPG: Room Functions: Most rooms in this community did not house people. Archeologists think many rooms, like the one to your left, were used to store tools, food, and water. Residents could have stored a 100-day water supply without much difficulty, given large pottery vessels and the abundant storage rooms found in the canyon. The larger rooms here are typical of living spaces, where people slept and sought shelter from bad weather. Family size is unknown, but several people probably lived together in one room. Most work took place outside, weather permitting. As you continue around the bend, look for the remains of a retaining wall along the canyon edge, constructed to create a "patio" workspace.
16. WALNUT_120720_278.JPG: A Days Work: Puebloan traditions reach far back in time and are the basis for the social organization portrayed here. What responsibilities might you have had in this community, given your age and gender?
17. WALNUT_120720_285.JPG: The Quest for Water: During the spring thaw, snowmelt rumbled through the narrow passage below you. Water flowed again during the spring monsoon. Shaded pools held precious water after the flow ebbed. Walnut Creek was the lifeblood of the community. Still, people had to store large quantities of water for the dry months. They likely supplemented their supply by packing snow into large pots and collecting runoff from overhanging cliffs. Women and children probably had the task of retrieving water from the creek. Do you think they exchanged stories, jokes, and gossip with neighbors before heading home?
18. WALNUT_120720_291.JPG: An Efficient Design Overhanging ledges protected rooms from snow and rain, and shaded them during summer months. Thick walls of stone and mud insulated them from harsh winds and retained essential heat in winter. Small doors were covered with animal skins, mats, cotton cloth, or sticks woven together. Air entered at the bottom, circled past a small fire, and carried most of the smoke out of a hole above the door.
19. WALNUT_120720_336.JPG: Mormon Tea
20. WALNUT_120720_343.JPG: Life on the Sunny Side: Here again, Walnut Canyon makes a turn. Notice the change in light and temperature. This is the sunnier, warmer, drier side of the "island," and the change is reflected in the vegetation. Pinion pine and juniper replace the fir and grow farther apart to each captures enough moisture. At your feet and ahead along the trail are yucca, prickly pear cactus, and other desert plants. The shady forest is now across the canyon, where Douglas fir and ponderosa pine thrive on cool moist slopes.
21. WALNUT_120720_365.JPG: A Community Sharing the Land: This was a community of relatives and neighbors. Its members worked together to haul water, hunt animals, and gather plants. They likely assisted each other with large fields on the rims. They shared walls and resources, joy and sorrow, success and failure. While cross-canyon dwellings may seem difficult to reach, a network of paths quickly closed the gaps. Close communication between households would have been common and necessary to a cooperative lifestyle. At least five cliff dwellings are visible from here; not all are on the same level. "Hopis build their houses close to each other to remind them that they are supposed to love each other. When a man decided to build a house... he gathered the materials provided by nature and drew from his reserve of good will (and that of his relatives) among his clan and friends, acquired from his own participation in such cooperative projects." -- From Me and Mine: The Life Story of Helen Seicaquaptewa as told to Louise Udall
22. WALNUT_120720_375.JPG: What Happened Here? "It is very dusty work to dig for relics... We dug for an hour or more, and found ... cornstalks, corncobs in abundance, beans, gourds, nuts, reeds, arrows, bowstrings, ... coarse cloth, a child's sandal, a measuring stick with notches at regular intervals, smoothly worn sticks of hard wood, bone needles, a fish line, soapweed needles, broken pottery, etc. In visiting other dwellings we added to these relics, and came away heavily laden." -- One woman's account of her trip to Walnut Canyon as reported in the San Francisco Call, ca 1890 A number of rooms in Walnut Canyon, like this one, were destroyed by visitors who came armed with shovels and left with souvenirs -- an acceptable, even promoted practice during the late 1800s. Meanwhile, other visitors and local citizens, so moved by this canyon and its cliff swellings, and outraged by the looting, lobbied for federal protection. On November 30, 1915, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the establishment of Walnut Canyon National Monument. How Our Thinking Has Changed... These sites are part of living cultures and deserve our respect. Today, removing or digging for relics is illegal. Sitting or leaning on walls can cause irreparable damage.
23. WALNUT_120720_400.JPG: Departure: Despite all it had to offer, in time Walnut Canyon became a difficult place for farmers to live. Drier, colder conditions meant drop failures. More people and diminished resources meant nutritional stress, disease, and conflict. However, these stressful times brought new means of coping. By 1250, people joined others in bigger villages to the south and east where archeological evidence suggests new beliefs and rituals arose. "Many reasons are given for clan migration in Hopi traditional history, including drought, famine, cold weather, ... disease, warfare, ... and natural disasters. However, from a Hopi perspective, the primary reason for migration is the fulfillment of a spiritual covenant... The religious intentionally of Hopi migration receives scant attention in most archeological reconstructions of the past." Hopi tradition holds that Walnut Canyon was simply one stop in a larger journey, and ultimately, not the final destination for these people.
24. WALNUT_120720_427.JPG: Migration is not abandonment: Walnut Canyon was once filled with the sounds of a busy community as families hunted, planted, and harvested with the seasons. Children were born, grew up, and raised children of their own. They were neither the first nor the last to use and value what this canyon has to offer. But they left behind the greatest legacy. When they moved on they did not give up their responsibility to care for this ancestral village and those left behind. Sites were and are revisited by by descendants. Prayers are still offered. Plants are still ritually gathered. Walnut Canyon was -- and is -- a place that resonates with life. "... where people stopped and built homes are all sacred places. No matter if they passed on, the people who couldn't travel stayed in the homes. Their spirits are there in all the sites. All the sites are sacred to us." -- A Zunni tribal member
25. WALNUT_120720_459.JPG: The new section of the sidewalk indicates where the landslide had happened.
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Wikipedia Description: Walnut Canyon National Monument
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Walnut Canyon National Monument is a United States National Monument located about 10 mi southeast of downtown Flagstaff, Arizona just off Interstate 40. The canyon rim lies at 6690 ft; the canyon floor 350 ft lower. A 0.9 mi long loop trail descends 185 ft into the canyon passing 25 cliff dwelling rooms constructed by the Sinagua people.

Most of the cliff dwelling rooms are situated near the loop trail, typically slightly above the trail and immediately outside the loop itself. A typical room might have been the dwelling of a single family, and might measure approximately two meters high by six meters long by three meters deep.

There are many more dwellings to be seen up close if you take the time to explore the canyon just east of the Monument. Entrance via The Arizona Trail works best, no ropes necessary, just scrambling. Do not enter the canyon in the Monument as it is illegal and you will be severely punished. Remember to take only pictures and leave these sites undisturbed.

Walnut Canyon was proclaimed a national monument on November 30, 1915. It was transferred from the USDA Forest Service to the National Park Service on August 10, 1933. As with all historic areas administered by the National Park Service, the national monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.
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