Exploring Walnut Canyon

     Yesterday we pulled into this campsite near Flagstaff, AZ. There is dozens of lovely camping sites in this National Forest area all free for the taking. Due to recent storms, it is extremely muddy. We did use our 4 wheel drive and I did close my eyes at one point when it looked as though our camper was going to slam into a gate. But Eldon managed to slide us into a great spot with no damage to to truck or camper! Today the sun is shining and the puddles are rapidly drying up! The only downside to this place is the large amounts of trash and glass laying around. 

     We had time to spend a few days in the area so I began searching for free things to do. To our surprise, Walnut Canyon is one of the coolest National Monuments we've been to yet and it was only a few miles from our boondocking site! And since Makayla qualifies for the every kid in a park pass, it was free for us. Before I even start on the pictures, I'll just say this we loved this place way more then Mesa Verde.

     Walnut Canyon is the site of  hundreds of cliff dwellings built between 1125 and 1250. The canyon rims, relatively flat with pockets of deep soil, were the main farmlands. Most homes were situated on cliffsides facing south and east to take advantage of sunlight. The canyon cliffs provided natural shelter from weather as well as enemy tribes.

     We hiked the 1 mile loop around Island Trail which took us past 25 dwellings. It included 240 steps and a descent (and ascent) of nearly 200 feet. After a long rest, during which the children completed their JR Ranger books, we hiked the .7 mile Rim Trail that overlooked the canyon.

Several varieties of pine trees here perfume the air deliciously!

So many dwellings! In the 1800's many "professional thieves" used dynamite to get into the dwellings in hopes of finding treasure. 

The children loved walking into some of them!

Looking down the canyon.

How would you like this for a front door view?!

We enjoyed all the signage about plants and trees along the trail.

Many are falling apart.

Here you can see the smoke left from fires.

Loved all the gnarly trees.

So practical and efficient!

The trail was paved the whole way.

A Yucca plant.

I wish pictures would capture the real beauty and smell!

Cute little rock sign.

A garden along the rim. Although, I'm positive the natives didn't have chicken wire around their corn 😂.

The canyon used to flood several times a year a provide water for the tribes to store but now dams divert water from running through here.

Even though it's October, we still found flowers!

     This place will definitely go high on our list of favorite places! Even though the Island Trail was steep, it was very doable if you go slow.

     Our primary reason for wanting to spend a few days near Flagstaff was to pick up 1 more solar panel. We have 2 and it's great if we watch our electric usage closely and the sun shines most of the day. But cloudy days are hard. Eldon was thrilled to pick up a panel that was a display model 25% off! He came home and installed it immediately yesterday. So far it's working great!

Albuquerque BioPark

The children (especially Emily) have been asking when we can go to a zoo again and we finally got it done. We choose to stay in Albuquerque an extra day since they have a large zoo that is also connected to a botanic garden and aquarium. The combo tickets included all 3 plus unlimited train rides to different stops. 

     Unfortunately, the day was supposed to be cold and blustery but we pulled out the winter clothes and prepared for the worst. As long as the sun was shining and there was no wind it was almost comfortable. Our Montana friends would call it a "dry cold" 😉. The children did fantastic in the less then ideal conditions. My pictures are a bit out of order since some are from my camera and some from my phone. Also, we did part of the zoo, then the aquarium and gardens, then back to the zoo.

Watching fish and stingrays is so hypnotizing.

Lots of coral.

Lobsters.......or something similar.

The seahorses were so fat!

The garden eels just bobbed around.

Pinecone hugger 😍.

The Leaf-cutter Ants had a colony but they traveled over a rope into another room to retrieve leaves. Eldon was fascinated with it! They also went through tubes and the wall.

The lush, humid Mediterranean Garden. Right next to it was the dry, dessert garden!

Michael loved the roses.

 

Riding the train was a nice break from all the walking.

Mr. Polar Bear just hanging out and enjoying the cool weather.

    

The gorilla just sat and stared at us. I totally expected him to wave at us!

The male orangutan was a hairy beast!

A wombat! We've never seen one before so this was cool.

      This zoo also had koalas and Tasmania devils, 2 other species we've never seen before so we were looking forward to that. Sadly, both were off the exhibit.

The seals were swimming around, much to our delight.

You can't see him well, but the baby elephant was adorable. I say baby but he weighs 700 pounds!

The aquium pictures didn't turn out well but we spent a lot of time there! They even had sharks!

The fantasy garden was Makayla's favorite. We went through a rabbit hole and "shrunk" to insect size. We went inside a pumpkin and under tree roots, ect. Super cool!

There was a huge model train but it doesn't run on Tuesdays.

A bridge the model train went over.

Due to the cold weather only a few butterflies were in the butterfly house.

The Japanese Gardens were so peaceful!

The rose garden still had lots of blooms!

The lioness taking her afternoon nap.

     To our surprise, the children liked the botanic gardens as much as the zoo. Around 4 the wind picked up and it got cloudy. We decided to pack it up and went to Wendy's for a hot meal. 

ABF2018 - Part 3

     This blog post will wrap up our time at the balloon fiesta. It's hard to believe that it's over already!

The children always enjoy the crafts. Here the younger group was painting hot air balloons.

Playing London Bridge is Falling Down while we get the next activity ready.

Stringing colored noodles onto pipe cleaners. Makayla choose to help the little ones since she didn't want to get all messy making.........

......a paper mache balloon! It's basically strips of paper towel dipped in glue. They layered them over a balloon then it dried in that shape. Pretty cool!

Ethan stringing noodles.

Friends :).

The few mornings we didn't go to the field, we could watch the balloons rising over the treetops. 

One morning close to a dozen landed in the field near us!

It was a wild scramble as the kids tried to get a trading card from every balloon.

I thought this one was pretty cool!

Coming down!

This was our group, in the cemetery. We weren't actaully in it but everyone called it that. Photo credits to Dustin Schroeder.

Michael painting his paper mache balloon. Photo credits to Michelle Simpkins.

Hundreds of balloons! Photo credits to Dustin Schroeder. 

Flying above the Rio Grand. Photo credits to Jason Simpson, who got to fly with his pilot.

The adults had coffee talks so the these guys wanted to have a tea talk.

One morning I helped crew the Liberty Bell and took Emily and Michael with me.

View from our living room window!

Up close and personal with Cynthia Seal.

Emily saying good-bye to our next door neighbor, Anna Belle. These 2 were together pretty much all the time and had such a good time!

16 pounds of pork shoulder! By last night only 10 families remained so Eldon smoked this all day then we had everyone over for a potluck.

     We had a great time rekindling old relationships and making lots of new ones. Of course, the balloons were a highlight too!

     We were without hook-ups for 14 days and are so excited that we didn't need to run our generator once, thanks to the solar. Our 110 gallons of fresh water was plenty. Eldon did take 55 gallons out of our gray and black tanks once but I'm not even sure if we would have had to.

     For the next 2 nights we're at an RV park in Albuquerque with full-hooks. So lots of laundry, cleaning, and long showers going on!