Today we saw lots of cool Indian dwellings and some amazing petrified wood. First stop Waputaki National Monument. This is a pueblo which was inhabited around 1100 – 1250 ad. It’s an excellent site with a very informative and interesting guide book. Apparently, the Indians don’t actually like this type of preservation of their heritage as they believe that things should be allowed to decay and die – otherwise the world will become overcrowded. I think that may have been some sort of rationalization for their short life spans as living out here in the dessert could not have been easy and many would have died at quite early ages.
The structure itself is very impressive – using the large stones that were already there they managed to build up to three stories high. Their masonry work was far more advanced than I would have believed and they had some very ingenious methods of providing circulation. One thing we have noted at all the Indian sites we’ve been to – they all ate corn, squash and beans. In different areas there were different supplements to this – elk, deer, fish, nuts, fruit etc. but the basic diet was very similar for all.
Next we went to the Sunset Crater – we had originally planned to do the hike around it – but as we had gotten off quite late and thunder was looming we decided against it. In any case, the pictures in the visitor center didn’t look that interesting. You used to be able to climb up it but now can only go around the bottom.
Walnut Canyon was next – here we did the mile and a bit walk with about 280 steps in both directions – and it was well worth it. The Indians resided here in the cliffs and it is like an entire city. We walked around the central section so basically through 50 or so dwellings front patios with views across the canyons in all directions to more dwellings (on the sunny sides) and storage rooms (on the shady sides). Because of the location they didn’t need to go anywhere for water – they could gather it as it came down over the cliffs. And to hunt the animals were easy to find – down in the narrow valleys near the river. These Indians we’re told were quite wealthy and had a bustling trade. Goods from California, Mexico and Canada were found here. Apparently due to changes in weather patterns the nearby trade routes moved and so eventually the people would have had to move as well. Shame as it would have been a quite spectacular place to live.
Next, on to the Petrified Forest. Here, at some point, volcanic debris swept through the area mowing down the forest in its tracks. The trees were preserved inside and over time silica seeped into the wood and replaced the fibers. Eventually the silica turned into quartz so what is left now are what look very much like trees that have quite recently fallen down –but when viewed from close up are beautiful quartz in all different colors. It is very strange to look at them and then touch as there is quite a disconnect between what (especially the outsides) look like and what they feel like. The area was plundered for quite some time by souvenir hunters so apparently there isn’t nearly as much as there used to be but it was still quite spectacular.
In this same area are several interesting geological features – including some tepee looking structures with beautiful striped coloring. We zoomed across much of the park as the sunlight was dwindeling and we wanted to make it to the painted desert by sunset (we did one loop which Andi wasn’t too sure about – but when assured he could make the 3 ½ miles in less than 5 minutes he decided it would be ok – vroom, vroom). We did stop at this old rusted out car and a bumper with a Route 66 (oh – maybe I didn’t mention that we were on Route 66 for much of the day) which had been turned into a bench. Cool.
