Did Someone Really Live Here?

Towards the end of July we decided we wanted to have one last summer adventure and go see the National Monuments near Flagstaff, AZ.  We invited the Jessee's (Paul's sister, LeeAnn, and her family) to join us.  They are always game for a roadtrip so they accepted the invitation.

The first of three monuments was Walnut Canyon; a site of Native American Cliff dwellings.  We barely made it there in enough time to take the hike down the mountain side to see the dwellings.

Some of the dwellings walls had crumbled others were still very much intact giving you a real good idea of what these homes were like over 800 years ago when they were inhabited.

I don't know that the kids totally apprecaited what they were seeing and experiencing, they just enjoyed walking along and being with their cousins.  The whole time I was totally amazed that people really lived in these homes.  Not so much because of their size or primitivness, but because of their location.

They were nicely nestled onlong a cliff - thus they are called cliff dwellings.  With my great fear of heights, I kept wondering how did they get there?  What about their children?  I would have been a nervous reck as a Mom living here.

As we climbed up the 240 steps back to the visitors center and parking lot we were caught in a rainstorm.  By the time we reached the vans we were all a little soggy, but cooled off.  No one seemed to really mind, we were too busy having fun together.