The South Riding RV Travels

19th-21st June 2009 - Sunset Crater and Walnut Canyon, Flagstaff, Arizona Arizona

We camped at Bonito campground, a National Forest site about 12 miles north of (and 1000ft higher than) Flagstaff, on one of the roads to the Grand Canyon. We don't usually stay in National Forest campgrounds because they rarely have electricity or any other facilities. Whilst they are otherwise very good, we prefer a few amenities. At these altitudes the ponderosa pines are much in evidence.

Just up the hill is Sunset Crater which gives the park its name. This is a cinder cone volcano which is thought to have been created in 1064AD. Sadly it is very fragile and people are no longer allowed to climb it. We climbed the older, smaller (90m) Lenox cone which was still hard work. This is the view of the San Francisco peaks from the top. The rainy season is coming and the clouds are beginning to form. We even had brief overnight rain.

There is a walkway past some lava flows showing the different types. This is a squeeze-up where the cooling lava has cracked and been forced up by fresh flows from underneath.

The pines are slowly recolonizing the slopes of Sunset Cone. It has taken 1000 years for enough soil to support the trees to be created within the ash and lava.

Some 18 miles up the road is Wukoki pueblo where people lived after the volcano covered where they had been living with ash. This is quite a structure with multiple levels and a wonderful view over the valleys.

Well, it's a view, I'm not so sure about the wonderful. Farming here must have been really difficult. Today little grows except scrub and the soil is still largely ash.

Another site of pueblo remains at Wupatki is only a few miles away. This dates from a similar period but was more prosperous and is thus larger.

Again you have the multi storey complex which we have seen at several sites north and south of the border. However, unlike the more southerly ones, this complex was built of stone taken from the surrounding area. The people who lived here are thought to have been Hopi and/or Zuni tribes which today live on the mesas just to the south of here.

This is a ballcourt which was excavated and stabilised in 1965. They were common in the area from 800-1200AD. Over 200 have been found in Arizona and their use is thought to have been important for social and economic reasons. The games are believed to have been brought north from Mexico by the Hohokum who settled more towards Phoenix.

The stone construction has stood the test of time well and many walls still remain. The thick walls would have provided good insulation in both summer and winter.

Even in June there are remnants of snow on the mountaintops, a reminder that even this far south it can get very cold in the winter.

We also visited Walnut Canyon just to the east of Flagstaff. This is another national monument site which this weekend was free to all visitors and so was quite crowded. But we arrived early and found a parking spot for the RV. The visitor centre had a nice little exhibition with information on the local tribes.

The 1.6 mile walk is paved but the reverse way round to usual. There are over 300 steps DOWN. So coming back up is really hard work. They do warn you before you start out. Here we have alternating layers of rock and people lived under the overhangs much as at Mesa Verde.

There is quite different plant life on the north and the south sides of the canyon. The north side is very dry and so has desert type plants, the south side is more shaded and so retains more moisture enabling different plants to thrive.

Under many of the overhangs there are the remnants of habitation although how people got to them is not obvious.

Since the floor, the roof, and the back wall were already built, it was fairly easy to build a place to live and its inaccessibility made it a safe place to be.

The patterns in the rock record changing wind directions over the millenia.

Several families would have lived and worked together along this platform. Other rooms would have been added as the family grew.

There is evidence of these rooms having been rebuilt several times over the period of their use.

Some of the rooms have been partially reconstructed showing how the occupants would have been protected from the elements.

We returned to Flagstaff for lunch and parked alongside the railway. Most US towns are conscious of the number of RV visitors they get and so provide parking facilities for them. This is the railway station. We never seem to get far from the railway in the US. Passenger traffic probably doesn't exist here although there may be an odd daily train since this is the main BNSF line.

Even on a Sunday the trains rattle through with 3-8 locomotives on the front and up to 118 double stacked container wagons behind.

We finally travelled the 150 miles south back to Phoenix where we cleaned and emptied the RV. It will stay with friends over the summer until we return next spring. We fly home in a day or two to London and then on to Bordeaux. Watch for the 2010 trip when we hope to visit Alaska.