American Southwest Day 8: Touching a Star & Sinaguas

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Running a few days behind here, when you're not taking the train on overnight trips it doesn't give a convenient daily time to funnel the days recollections into the blog.

Museum of Northern Arizona

Anne had highly recommended this museum so we went first thing in the morning and it was in fact a good thing as it explained all of the geological phenomena we had seen so far and explained all of the anthropological phenomena we would be seeing for the next couple of days. In addition today was a Zuni Festival of sorts so indigenous artists were displaying all of their jewelry throughout the museum and there was also dances and presentations throughout the day in the museum's auditorium. The dance we saw, performed by four girls with two old ladies producing the beat, was interesting as they were in full dress and had clay pots balanced on their heads and they shimmied from side to side to the same rythmic tune. I am not sure if it was a rain dance, but if it was, it might explain why the area has received so little rain.

The Sinagua in Walnut Canyon

Today we went to Walnut Canyon, a National Monument to the southeast of Flagstaff, once inhabited by the Sinagua people during the 11th and 12th centuries in cliff dwellings. Thanks to a landslide late last year the trail that would take us closest to the ruins was closed but we walked the rim and saw a number of the dwellings in the cliffs (see pictures) and also saw some of their earlier pithouses up on the rim. The Spanish named these natives Sinagua meaning "without water" as they lived in such an arid climate. The Sinagua first settled the area around Flagstaff but we would later find that they travelled south of Sedona just as we later would.

Meteor Crater

I had probably first read about this meteor crater when I was 8 or 9 years old and I have not felt a feeling of inner excitement at the chance to see something in a very long time. The San Francisco Peaks impressively and squarely visible in the rearview mirror, I recognized the lumpy "mountains" in the distance on the plain in front of us as the rim of the crater. At 3/4 of a mile wide, this is a very small crater compared to those found all over the world, I think our crater at Serpent Mound in Ohio is 20 miles wide - but good luck seeing those other ones, they are older and long submerged below grade by sedimentation or erosion. As we got out of the car I for whatever silly reason imagined we were being irradiated by some interstellar matter, but I think the Subway sandwiches we had for lunch on-site were probably worse for us. After having seen several canyons, seeing a 3/4-mile wide, 500 foot deep hole, was not so much of a big deal, although it is impressive that a 150 foot wide nickel-iron alloy meteorite caused such a catastrophic scar in the landscape. Much more interesting are the up-to-date exhibits they have explaining all of the meteor craters on Earth, throughout the solar system; even the formation of the Earth and Moon.

Driving to Sedona

We got the heat we were looking for as we dropped rapidly from 7000 to 4500 feet in the 30 odd miles between Flagstaff and Sedona. Unfortunately we weren't the only ones "escaping" to Sedona and we came up against a 2 mile curtain of cars heading down from Coconino National Forest into the city that snaked along at a slow pace of about 5 miles an hour. There wasn't much we could do save enjoy the scenery (and I of course ruminating over a geat quip for the ADOT workers we would surely pass by). The hold up turned out to be more of a case of rubbernecking through the arts district than anything else. The Hilton Sedona is located well to the south of the city, about 7 miles in Oak Creek, which is described as Sedona but reall shouldn't be. The hotel was older but nice, we hung out in the jacuzzi for a while and were joined by a couple of ladies who were all over each other and they weren't attractive either. We received a suite upgrade - a very nice room, but like every other place on the trip we literally just used the room as a temporary crashpad. We've agreed that having a multiple night stay in a place is a must for the future.

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Photos

San Francisco Peaks
One volcano used to rise 8,000 feet above the surrounding landscape, now crumbled down to multiple peaks with Mount Humphreys on left at 12,000 feet above sea.

Dancing Girls
At the Museum of Northern Arizona. Not very stimulating for anyone.

Walnut Canyon National Monument
Home to many Sinagua some 600-plus years ago.

Sinagua Cliff Dwellings
Dozens of these dot the canyon walls. As the Ranger explained, once you find the first one, you'll know what to look for.

Sinagua Pueblo
These were contemporaries of the cliff dwellings, built on the rim near the fields of squash and corn. They were composed of two or more rooms.

Sinaguan Ruins!
Wandering mindlessly about the woods high above the canyon rim, Jennifer makes an astounding discovery!

Rim of the Crater
Not as hot as it looks, very windy.

Actual Meteor Chunk
The biggest piece they have found to date. Nickel-Iron Alloy, I feel like Homer Simpson working at the nuclear power plant.

Oh Misery!
We sat in traffic for 45 minutes 2 miles outside of Sedona. Road construction was part of the problem, the bigger was that once people got into town they would just start cruising down the two lane street!

Sedona's Intermission
We stared at these guys for 45 minutes.

Hilton Sedona
Apples and oranges, but if we had to pick Hilton Sedona is better than l'Auberge.