Indian Ruins
Wupatki Ruins 07/01/2022
Today’s travel was a journey into the past. We went to an area about forty miles north of Flagstaff and visited the Wupatki National Monument. The Wupatki settlement site was first inhabited around 500 AD. Wupatki, which means “Tall House” in the Hopi language, is a multistory Sinagua pueblo dwelling comprising over 100 rooms. The Sinagua tribe lived in this area. This is a semi-arid expanse and Sinagua, in Spanish, means “without water”. It is an unlikely landscape for a thriving community. We visited the largest of the ancient pueblos. It was a three story adobe construction with over one hundred rooms. The park, itself, has over thirty- two separate dwelling ruins. It was estimated that it was between 1,000 and 1,200 years old.
After leaving the Wupatki Ruins, we drove to the eastern entrance of the Grand Canyon for a twenty seven mile drive along the South Rim back to Grand Canyon Village. We saw a number of viewpoints with stunning views of the canyon and the Colorado River. Along the way we saw quite a few elk and deer. The kids were exposed to another way of life that existed many centuries ago. (Us too)
In their words…
Ethan…..
Today we drove to the Wupatki National Monument. The monument contains 1000 year old Indian ruins. The ruins were so cool. When people used to live there 1000 years ago, it was three stories tall with over 100 rooms. About halfway through the trail that goes around them was this thing called a blowhole. The blowhole was a hole in its own isolated room. It wasn’t just a hole, it was the opening to an underground cavern that acted as nature’s air conditioning. It was absolutely awesome. You just hold your head over and it blows your hair straight into the air. It was just the right temperature for the desert, and even though it smelled like rocks, which was not really that bad of a smell, it was the cleanest, freshest air I have ever felt. The way it works is the cavern either sucks warm light air or it blows out cool air, depending on the atmosphere. Obviously we got there at the right time. From there we walked on towards the end of the path, where we encountered a room you could go inside. It was so cool being able to go inside. After that we stopped off at a different part of the Grand Canyon to take pictures and look in the gift shop. While we were there we got ice cream and I got a Grand Canyon hat. On the way back to the house, we saw so many elk. It was really cool. We also saw some deer on the roadside. Once back, we got into the hot tub and then went to bed
Samuel….
We went to the Indian Ruins. We tried to eat lunch outside, but it started to rain and thunder.. so we ate in the car. Then we went into the Visitor Center. We went out to the ruins and saw a snake mark on a rock. (petrooglyph) We saw a circle of rocks and a ballfield. We went down to a blowhole and cold air came out. Once we left the ruins, we went to the Grand Canyon again. I got a stuffed animal in the gift shop and named him Bucky. We got ice cream and left for the house. On the way back we saw some elk. At the house there were cows grazing next to the house. We got into the hot tub for awhile. When we got out, it was Courtney, Riley, and Granna’s turn. Ethan, Granddaddy, and I watched TV until it was time for bed.
Riley…
Today was a more settled day. We woke up and drove to a picnic area. It was just about an hour drive to get there. We had to eat in the car because it looked like there was a storm coming near us. After we finished eating, we went inside the building. Inside the building we heard talks about the Indian ruins and what happened to them. Outside you could see what was left of the ruins. Granna read to us about what had happened to them and what the things we saw were. One of the ruins was a ballcourt. They held ceremonies and kids would play a game like hockey. We left there and drove for a bit. We went to another part of the Grand Canyon. We were going to go the the top of a watchtower, but it was closed. However, the shop was not closed. We went in there and I saw a hoodie I liked. It was blue with “Grand Canyon” on the front. We left that shop and went to get ice cream. When we left, we saw a bunch of elk and a few deer. When we got back to the house, Ethan, Samuel and I got into the hot tub. After that we all went to bed to be ready to leave for New Mexico.
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