We spent a couple of days in Flagstaff at Black Bart's cooling off. We drove out to see Walnut Canyon, Sunset Crater and Wupatki National Monument. It has been a long time since we had been there. Walnut Canyon is such a beautiful place. There are very early cliff ruins that you can see from the rim or climb a steep staircase down to walk around in them.
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| Walnut Canyon Ruins |
Sunset Crater is a large cinder cone situated in a large area surrounded by very active volcanoes which have been dated to about 1064 as the date of the last eruption.
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| Cinder Cone |
Wupatki is the site of a large pueblo style ruin that has been well preserved. It dates to the time of the eruption. We spent our time at another ruin there, Wukoki. It is quite unusual in that it is built on top of a huge sandstone boulder.
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| Wukoki |
On our way out Rt 40, we passed the largest visible meteor crater on the continent. I believe moon walking astronauts trained here.
We continued on and passed through Albuquerque, north to Bernalillo and the Coronado State Monument CG. This is a really nice campground right on the Rio Grande river. We have stayed here before when we attended the Balloon Fiesta. There is a pueblo ruin here and they have a special room with the paintings from an ancient kiva around the walls. It is beautiful.
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| Rio Grande before Sandia Peak |
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