Laugh With Us Blog

Family, food, and travel!

  • Home
  • Family
    • My Man
    • Kids
      • Faith
      • Joy
      • Grace
      • Little Jason
      • Bobby
    • Homeschooling
    • Parenting
    • Marriage
    • Funny
  • Food
  • Travel
    • Alaska
    • Arizona
    • California
    • Cruising
    • Florida
    • Indiana
    • Israel
    • Kansas
    • Kentucky
    • Minnesota
    • New Mexico
    • New York
    • North Carolina
    • Oklahoma
    • Texas
  • Contact
  • About Me
    • Privacy Policy
  • Promotional

Walnut Canyon National Monument

walnut-canyon-national-monument

We had one day in Flagstaff, Arizona to explore. It certainly was not enough. We’d love to go back and do more, but the one thing we chose was Walnut Canyon National Monument. The day before we had spend at the Grand Canyon and while we thoroughly enjoyed our day, I think every one of us were dying to go IN the canyon. Walnut Canyon is much smaller and a great place to hike!

walnut-canyon-trails

We decided there were three things necessary for the Island trail: hats, sunscreen, and good shoes! Oh and water, take water. I guess there’s four things you need! We purchased hats inside in the visitor’s center, and I thought the kids looked super cute. After initially walking in we took kids back to the van to change their shoes. When doing this we actually saw a couple going back home for a change of shoes and then saw them on the trail later.

walnut-canyon-cave-dwellings

National Monument? Those words always make me think of a statue or plaque somewhere and to me sounds kind of…boring. Not so. A national monument is just historical site or a government protected area. What you will see at Walnut Canyon is cliff dwellings!

walnut-canyon-nationa-l-monument-cliff-dwellingsThe Island Trail leads you down into the canyon, where you will hike around a giant rock island. There are 25 cliff dwelling rooms along the trail and many more can be seen across the canyon.

walnut-canyon-national-monument-trails-with-kids

The trails are paved and easy to navigate. We kept a firm hold on our youngest two boys. Though the trails are wide and not scary, you are walking along the canyon with cliff on one side the entire time.

walnut-canyon-cliff-dwellings

The kid really loved being able to go in many of the cliff dwellings and imagining what life would have been like living up there on a rock.

walnut-canyon-cutest-little-cave-dewller

The Island Trail is one mile round trip. It is considered strenuous because of the elevation the fact that it descends 185 vertical feet into the canyon, and returns the same way.

walnut-canyon-trails-with-kids

The walk down into the canyon was definitely much easier than the walk back up!

walnut-canyon-cactus

My son absolutely loved looking at the plant life throughout the trail. He is my little science guy. At this point he asked for his picture taken touching a cactus. He thought it was so cool to touch it and not get poked!

walnut-canyon-visitor-center

And that there is the visitor’s center from where we hiked into the canyon. Yup! It was a long way back up, but we did it.

walnut-canyon-rim-trail

The Rim Trail is the second trail on site. This trail is not quite a mile long, and is flat. It takes you along the rim of the canyon for a great view. You can also see lots of unique plants with plaques telling you what they would have been used for back in the day.

We loved spending the morning hiking at Walnut Canyon and learning about cliff dwellings. Incredible.

Esther

Related Posts

  • What to Eat in San Angelo, TexasWhat to Eat in San Angelo, Texas
  • Great Wolf Lodge Grizzly Bear SuiteGreat Wolf Lodge Grizzly Bear Suite
  • A day in Sweetwater, TexasA day in Sweetwater, Texas
  • The Pepin Mansion Historic Bed & BreakfastThe Pepin Mansion Historic Bed & Breakfast
  • Moody Gardens Hotel at ChristmasMoody Gardens Hotel at Christmas
  • A boat ride on the Sea of GalileeA boat ride on the Sea of Galilee

1 Comment Filed Under: Arizona, Travel Tagged: travel

Comments

  1. Frieda says

    September 24, 2016 at 12:17 pm

    Are there some of these you can see from a highway or road? We saw some cliff dwellings like these on our way to California from Oklahoma (we were on Highway 66 all the way but might have made a few detours to see something interesting. Anyway I remember very well seeing the caves but don’t remember getting out of the car. The temperature was somewhere unbelievable over 100 and we had no air conditioning in the car of course. This was 1962, more or less, before we had any children.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Hi! We believe laughter is the best medicine. Join in with us as we share our family laughs, fun with food, and love of travel. Great to meet you! Esther Irish




Favorite Posts

  • 25 Random Things About Me
  • The Hardest Year of My Life
  • Joy's Christmas Concert
  • My Bright Idea
  • Losing My Baby
  • A Bug in My Shirt
  • Why I don't fly with kids

Archives

© 2010 - 2023 · All rights reserved by Esther Irish · Privacy Policy · Log in

Copyright © 2023 · Laugh With Us Blog on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in