Walnut Canyon: Monument to the Sinagua

WALNUT CANYON'S SECRETS ITE S

IN A SENSE, IT'S ONE OF THE best-kept secrets of the National Park Service system. Yet thousands of visitors each year come to Walnut Canyon National Monument. Situated about seven miles east of Flagstaff, Walnut Canyon attracts visitors from both the United States and overseas.

They marvel, learn, and leave, believing with some justification that they have experienced all the wonders of this ancient place. But if they adhered to the beaten path, they didn't.

Some two dozen well-preserved cliff dwellings, abandoned nearly 800 years ago by what archaeologists call the Sinagua culture, are accessible by a paved walkway circling a rocky "island" in Walnut Canyon. The dwellings along the quarter-mile and three-quarter-mile hikes, and the excellent visual presentation in the visitors center are all that most tourists see.

In fact, though, some 300 dwellings are strung precariously along both walls of the canyon. And many of them can be viewed on the self-guided Island Trail hike. Others may be seen under the guidance of a park ranger on hikes made by reservation. Treks beyond the on-your-own Island Trail walk are limited to specific days.

Our guide to the supervised treks, the Ledge Walk and the Cabin Walk, is Doraine Hoyungowa, one of the few Hopi rangers in the National Park Service. Her advice: put on sunscreen and wear a hat and long pants. Yucca and Fremont barberry are plentiful along the two-mile route we take; so is poison ivy. Hikers also should carry water.

The unmarked trail begins among juniper and piñon pine, but Doraine leads us quickly into ponderosa pine country. Early on, the trail is poorly defined and difficult to see. Occasionally, with quiet humor, Doraine gives a puzzled look to a group of hikers, and says, "Let's see. I think this is the right way."

One of her stops is what she calls the "trash-can graveyard." A draw leading into the canyon is littered with rusty cans. Doraine has found some dating to the 1890s, when they were tossed aside by early travelers. After showing one example to us, she carefully replaces it. These, too, are part of Walnut Canyon's heritage.

There are other artifacts scattered along the way: shards of pottery and fragments of a metate, recognizable by the smooth surface. Usually Doraine doesn't point them out for fear they will be taken by a souvenir-minded visitor.

The Cabin Walk is so-called because itpasses by the well-preserved cabin built in 1914 by William Pierce, the first ranger here. One window is hinged at the top, swinging outward to provide a cooling shelf for Mitty Pierce's pies on baking day. A cleverly devised channel carries rainwater into a 4,000-gallon cistern.

The trail we're on was followed by early Anglo settlers, possibly also by prehistoric people. Later it was used by picnickers driving wagons or buggies on outings promoted by the Riordan family, early Flagstaff lumber barons. In the visitors center, there is a photo of amateur musicians of the era entertaining other picnickers. Our first glimpse of cliff dwellings on this trail also is our first look at both the depredations of man and his efforts at restoration. So eager were some artifact hunters that they dynamited rock walls to expose souvenirs. A number of rock walls have been stabilized by the addition of mortar, beginning in the 1940s. The new work is obvious, unblackened by the fires of those who lived here.

Doraine tries to preserve the aura of these dwellings and instill a sense of eternity even in children. Her strictures are few and simple: stay off the prehistoric walls, she tells them, and don't shout into the canyon, disturbing other visitors, animals, and the spirits of departed dwellers. Truly Walnut Canyon is as much a mystical experience as an archaeological hike. Doraine enhances the mood by relating the people who lived here to her own childhood on the Hopi reservation. Sinagua (literally meaning "without water") is an archaeologist's designation. To the Hopis,

they were the Hisatsinom, or “people of the past.” Rather than simply disappearing, they went on a “quest” to what is now Hopi country.

Our guide encourages hikers to rest a little, close their eyes, and listen to the sounds of the canyon. Unseen to us, there are children laughing, people talking, birds calling, and the wind rustling through the trees. Those who came before, centuries past, heard the same sounds, and for a moment we can imagine their presence.

Some ranger-guides might emphasize the botanical treasures of Walnut Canyon; others, its geology. Doraine uses her Hopi heritage to explain how the “people of the past” lived here.

With her guidance, we can picture children playing with dolls fashioned from sheep bones or drawing a doll's face on a piece of flat rock. Dolls would represent parents and children, even animals. While adults worked in the fields, children were the gofers, fetching what the planters needed. The youngsters would bring water for women plastering the rock walls, finally leaving their own small handprints in the plaster.

The people of Walnut Canyon, rather than sweeping or repairing the plaster flooring, simply mixed more plaster and covered the old, worn surface. Doraine shows us a broken fragment, revealing four strata of flooring.

The well-traveled island dwellings are picked clean of artifacts. By contrast here, we see potsherds, fragments of woven material, probably part of a sandal, and little corncobs, castoffs of a people who also planted beans and squash and gathered juniper berries, piñon nuts, and squawbush berries. But corn was their staple; an average person ate about three quarts of cornmeal daily.

The shards vary. These residents made red pottery, sometimes brown, and sometimes decorated with white stripes. The black-on-white fragments are trade goods, made by the neighboring Anasazi. The type of pottery found in ruins is one of the factors used by archaeologists to catalog differences among the Hohokam, Anasazi, Mogollon, and Sinagua cultures.

Trade was important. Routes extended to what is now Southern California and to the Sea of Cortes. For their trade goods baskets, piñon nuts, sunflower seeds, and obsidian for arrow points the Hisatsinom acquired pottery, rock salt, cotton, sea shells, and malachite and argillite for jewelry.

Sea of Cortes. For their trade goods baskets, piñon nuts, sunflower seeds, and obsidian for arrow points the Hisatsinom acquired pottery, rock salt, cotton, sea shells, and malachite and argillite for jewelry.

Doraine describes Walnut Canyon as “a big grocery store” for its inhabitants. Among its natural growth are sage; yucca for fiber to make sandals, mats, and baskets, and yucca roots for soap; prickly pear cactus, black walnuts, piñon nuts, squawberries, serviceberries, canyon grapes, wild lettuce, ephedra to brew “Mormon tea”; and salt bush for soap (made from its fading blooms).

As neighbors, and possible sources of food, they had the Abert squirrel, mule deer, pronghorn, gray fox, mountain lion, and black bear. The mule deer and elk grazed on the canyon floor in thickets of locust, currant, poison ivy, and wild rose. Our sighting of a red-tailed hawk swooping in long, graceful arcs reminds Doraine of a ranger's watch over a hawk's nest and witnessing the birth of a fledgling, its first tentative wing-flapping as its parents warded off threatening turkey buzzards, and finally its first triumphant flight across the canyon. Since damming of the creek to create Upper and Lower Lake Mary as the primary reservoirs for Flagstaff, the once intermittent stream along the canyon floor is usually dry. A series of heavy rainstorms in 1993, however, spilled water over the dams and sent a 13-foot-deep torrent raging through the channel. Walnut Canyon gets an average of 60 inches of snow each winter.

Arizona by Tom Dollar. The 64-page softcover book provides insight into the Navajo and Hopi Indian cultures and information about the scenic jewels strung along the vast and rugged terrain, including Monument Valley, Canyon de Chelly, Lake Powell, and the Painted Desert. The guidebook also features 72 full-color photographs, maps, and travel tips. It costs $9.95 plus shipping and handling. To order, telephone toll-free (800) 543-5432; in the Phoenix area, call (602) 258-1000.

Robert C. Dyer also wrote about the San Pedro corridor in this issue.

Paradise Valley-based John Drew says that as he carried his camera gear up and down the steep cliffs of Walnut Canyon, his appreciation for the endurance of the Sinagua increased significantly.

"Have you seen the IMAX show at the Grand Canyon?" Doraine asks abruptly, pausing at a sharp bend in the pathway. Then, wordlessly, she leads us around the bend, opening to us a canyon view of breathtaking proportions, rising hundreds of feet from the creek bed to rocky pinnacles far higher than our vantage point. Dozens of hardy flora grow from the most inhospitable-appearing crevices and promontories, making up a landscape seeming larger than life itself. A fitting climax for "secret" Walnut Canyon. Walnut Canyon National Monument is located seven miles east of Flagstaff via Interstate 40; take Exit 204, then drive south three miles on a paved road. It is open daily, except Christmas. The entrance fee is $4 per car. The Ledge Walk and Cabin Walk are limited to groups of 15 and 10, respectively, age six and older; reservations are required. Rangers lead the 2½-hour Cabin Walk on Saturdays from the end of May through October. The 1½-hour Ledge Walk is offered Sundays and Wednesdays during summer months and Sundays only the rest of the year. The monument sits at 6,690 feet, and since the trail descends 185 feet and must be climbed on the return, the hikes are not suggested for visitors with respiratory or heart ailments.

WHEN YOU GO

Additional Reading: To discover more about the area around Flagstaff, we recommend Indian Country: A Guide to Northeastern For more information, contact Walnut Canyon National Monument, Walnut Canyon Road, Flagstaff, AZ 86001; (520) 526-3367.