While camped at Meteor Crater RV Park I was looking at my closet storage.  I had purchased some containers for my clothes while working at Lowe’s.  They worked OK but not as neat as I wanted.  I found some at Target that would work perfectly.  They are all very sturdy (that was the problem with the others).   Plus they hold all my clothes in separate drawers.  Below is a pic of my new storage containers.

Getting back to my story I was about 25 miles from Flagstaff.  I was so determined to complete my project I decided to drive back there and get just what I needed.  On the return trip I saw signs for the Walnut Canyon National Monument.  It was just a few miles off I40 but not really advertised too much.  I thought what the heck, I had lots of time so lets go.  What a find!!!

Walnut Canyon was made up of ancient cave dwellings that go back 800-1400 years.  There was a nice visitor center that showed the history of the area.  Then you could take a self guided hike about 185 feet down to the caves.  This was populated by the Sinagua people.  The one thing that seemed to be lacking for the people that lived here was water.  Sounds similar to California with their drought.

The first 3 pics show the canyon looking down from high on the trail.

Once down you then follow a trail that leads you to the caves.  The first couple of caves were probably used for storage of water and supplies.  There is no evidence of fires or soot on the roof.

This next pic shows many of the other caves in this area.  Supposedly there are over 138 different cave areas where these people lived.

More storage caves.

While talking to the ranger he mentioned the fact that there is little water in this area.  The stream at the bottom of the canyon did not run all year and was difficult to access since the canyon is so steep.  One advantage the cave dwellers had was that the water came to them as you can see in this next pic.  It ran down the sides of the rock and they collected it in large earthen containers.

This is probably where all the people actually lived.  It was almost like a small motel made out of rock.

I took this pic looking out from inside one of the dwellings.

This shows the visitor center and to the right you can see other cave dwellings.

It was a great day.  I purchased the storage containers I needed and then stopped off to see the fabulous Walnut Canyon National Monument.  Not a bad day at all !!!