Walnut Canyon

Just twenty minutes outside of Flagstaff is Walnut Canyon, a totally cool National Monument full of cliff dwellings that you can actually walk into. You take a terrific hike down (and eventually up) long staircases into the canyon, then tour around an interesting "island" in the middle of the canyon, poking into the cliff dwellings at will.

You can see many many other cliff dwellings across the canyon, almost like an adjacent apartment building. Surely they waved to their neighbors.

For those not interested in the 240 stairs down and up, or whatever it was, there is a rim trail. Grandpa is right in the center of this photo.

The canyon has lots of interesting plant life. This one is a euphorbia.

Alligator juniper.

Claret cup cactus.