What is the best way to start your personal solo travel adventure? By following a recommendation from a complete stranger on the internet.
As part of my overall research and planning for this adventure, I’d been compiling a list of random places around North America which sounded nice to visit. Two of those places were Walnut Canyon National Monument and Meteor Crater. So, that’s exactly where I headed off from Flagstaff.
Walnut Canyon National Monument
Walnut Canyon is located a short jaunt east of Flagstaff. Remembering nothing about what made Walnut Canyon special, I was quickly informed at the visitor center that the reason I was supposed to be there was to hike around the canyon and see the cliff dwelling ruins. Excellent!
If you are expecting the cliff dwellings to resemble the ruins at Mesa Verde National Park, you will be sorely disappointed. However, that’s not to say Walnut Canyon isn’t worth visiting, especially if you have a fascination with dilapidated housing. I’m floored at how many people I’ve met thus far who have an obsession with photographing old abandoned buildings. Let me rephrase, Walnut Canyon is incredibly beautiful and you should go.
Upon exiting the visitor center, you are afforded one of the most spectacular views of the canyon. I was delighted until I figured out why the hordes of children on a school field trip were completely beat and whining. In order to get to the cliff dwellings, you had to descend quite a way into the canyon, which meant you would eventually have to come back the way you came. I decided to think of it as good training for the hike I’m planning to do in the Grand Canyon.
Personally, the most interesting thing for me were the canyon walls. The walls look like they were formed by volcanic rock which melted like ice cream.
I'm melting!
The walls were actually formed by wind. Apparently, the etchings in different directions are a historical record of which way the wind was blowing at different times.
In addition to the cliff walls, some of the plants seemed to be influenced by the wind.
I woke up like this
And, to get you primed for the mass amount of plant photos I'm bound to post, here is a look into the first desert plants I encountered:
Prickly pear cacti
Banana Yucca
Meteor Crater
I should have known from the looks of the ten billboards leading to the crater that it was just a tourist trap. On entering the visitor center, the lady sadly informed me the tour had just departed, but that there would be another that day. Of all the things I could spend my money on, paying money to see a large hole in the ground was not going to be one of them.
