Thursday, August 02, 2007

Day 8 - Cliff Dwellings, Lava Fields, and Pueblos


We have settled into vacation mode and therefor didn't venture outside until the afternoon. Despite the late start we enjoyed another full day of sight seeing.

Our first stop was Walnut Canyon where we got to see and go inside 800 year old cliff dwellings. There is a beautiful one mile walk down and around small mesa that projected into the canyon. Michael could not help himself because the acoustics were perfect for clear, strong, echos. This encouraged all other boys in the canyon to do the same. Fortunately, and unexpectedly, we have not had crowds anywhere we have visited which has made for very pleasant sight seeing experiences.

The next stop was Sunset Crater which is the volcano that Michael studied in Science class last year! This area of Arizona has over 600 volcanos and Sunset Crater is the youngest, having erupted just less than 1000 years ago.

It is monsoon season in Arizona which means we have incredibly beautiful cloudy skis in the morning and in the late afternoon there is a 50/50 chance of thunder storms so strong you want to run away and hide in your ark (and read Harry Potter).

Our final stop was the Wupatki Ruins. We had to brave lighting, thunder, and torrential rain to run from our car to the visitor center. After reading about the history of the area, the rain slowed and we walked down to the ruins. We hope the photo shows the splendor of these ruins.

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