Arizona Indian Ruins

A couple of weeks ago my family and I went to explore three different Native American indian ruins near Flagstaff, Arizona.

The first ruin we visited was Wapatki National Monument near Sunset Crater National Monument. We walked around various rooms of different sizes. It was a very hot day and thankfully the hike was not very long. There were two circular pits where the children would play with each other and the adults would have meetings. There were ladders leading to the upper rooms. We had a very interesting park ranger, who made Sicily draw a perfect cactus to earn her junior ranger badge. The area around Wapatki was dry and trees were scarce. For this reason they chose make their houses out of mud and red rock.  I would imagine building with these material would take a long time. Wapatki was a great start to our trip..

Our second stop of the day was Walnut Canyon National Monument. We had an awesome picnic that my grandma and my mom brought. The hike consisted of 240 steps down into the canyon. Towards the end of the hike were  homes where the people once lived. The homes were carved into the limestone walls of the canyon. The roof of some of the homes were covered in black ash from the fires, which was quite a contrast from the yellowish brown walls. The Sinagua people farmed at the top of the canyon and got their water from the bottom, where the river was. This meant that to get their water the people had to climb down the canyon walls, carry it up to their homes, and up to their farms above.. It was awesome to see all of the hundreds of  homes that lined the middle of the canyon walls. Sadly, numerous homes and countless artifacts were partially destroyed from looters that robbed or didn’t know the significance of what they were taking. After the hike, we watched a mini-movie in the visitors center where I finished my junior ranger packet. The air condition felt amazing after hiking in the August heat. After the movie, I learned the difference between a national monument and national park from a park ranger. A national park is made by congress and a national monument is created by the president. Walnut Canyon was by far my favorite indian ruin. I found it interesting because we were reading, Walker of Time, a book that took place in Walnut Canyon at the time of Sinegua Indians vacating the canyon. . 

The next day we went to Tuzigoot National Monument. Tuzigoot is a free standing indian ruin on top of a hill so the indians could see their enemies. Tuzigoot took the them 300 years to build. Its built out of ugly yellow rock local to the valley. They lived there from approximately 500 CE to 1425 CE. Tuzigoot had over 40 rooms. It was named a national monument  by Franklin D. Roosevelt on July 25, 1939. We had the nicest park rangers, they were old people but somehow newlyweds. In the visitors center there was preserved pottery, arrowheads, ancient clothing, paintings and photos. It was a hot day, even hotter than the previous day because we had dropped in elevation. When we were done ice cream was calling our name. It tasted so good and a sweet way to end our adventures.

I learned that the ancient indian people were very smart when it came to daily survival. An example would be when the Tuzigoot people built their home on a hill to see their enemies. I would’ve hated living back then because there were no electronics. The indians were only concerned about daily survival. My siblings and I got our junior ranger badges at all the monuments. I learned a lot, saw a lot and had a great time exploring with my family.