Thursday, May 5, 2016

WALNUT CANYON AND EXTRA

On April 23  our group visited the Walnut Canyon National Park a few miles east of Flagstaff.  I had been there about 20 years ago but this was a new experience for most of our group. We were happily surprised when we drove up to the toll gate that there was no charge for visitors that day. The day was very windy. Our group did not attempt the  Island Trail as it involved an elevation change of nearly 300 feet.

These pictures were taken in a CanonSX150 IS with a 12x zoom. The image stabilization worked well when using telephoto feature.

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This is the central canyon. Water would flow on the left side toward the camera station and then make almost a U Turn to continue out of the right of the picture. The dependable supply of water is what made this canyon attractive to the cliff dwellers between about 1100 and 1300 AD

 

Here are a few of the many cliff dwellings in the park.

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Above is a normal angle shot of some dwellings and below is a telephoto shot of part of the same area.

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This is the Island Trail as seen from near the top. It takes the hiker to dwellings for inspection up close and personal.

 

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From the top near the visitor center  the residents had a great view of the San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff.

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There were more dwellings at the top. The ones outlined here by foundations could have been for storage of grain.

 

 

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A week after the trip to Flagstaff,  Jo’s son Jeff, Monty and I went to Chase Field to watch the Diamondbacks lose to Colorado Rockies in a fairly close game.

Monty and Jeff are shown below.

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