As we pulled out of the campground between Sedona and Flagstaff Arizona, we might have gotten a slight twitch out of the camp host, but he certainly wasn’t going to smile! Oh well, we had a very nice stay in his park.
We immediately started to climb, and the Garmin showed the switchbacks that were ahead. We climbed quite a bit, and it was a very steep long way down looking out the passenger side!
It was a short easy drive to our first stop, Walnut Canyon National Monument, but we arrived about 45 minutes before the gates opened. Arizona isn’t on Daylight Savings Time unless you are on Navajo reservation, and they go on DST. Kind of confusing. Anyway, we just drove back a little way to a picnic area and fixed our breakfast. After cleaning up the breakfast mess, we went on to the VC. We got our stamps and listened to the ranger telling about the trail to the ruins. After we heard 240 steps at 7000 elevation, that was enough to direct us only to the viewpoint! I don’t think they said anything about the length of trail between the steps, but you could see quite a trail system. The viewpoint gave us a good view of the ruins. One of the maintenance men said he goes down at least once a day, and tries for twice. Of course he was quite a bit younger! There were warning signs all over the place!
Next up was Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument just north of Flagstaff. It kind of reminded us of Craters of the Moon in Idaho. There were cinder cones all over, and the cinder covered hills were quite extensive. Of course we got our stamps at the VC and watched part of the video, then took off on the drive through the park. It blended right into the next one, Wupatki National Monument.which is home to a number of different ruins. The first one we came to was open to walking around in, so we explored it, then went to the VC and again got our stamps and watched part of the video. The video was just shown on a screen in the exhibit area instead of a separate little room, so we got in on it while other people had already started it.
We have seen a lot of ruins in a few days, and they sort of all blend together after while, so we left Wupatki and had several hours to drive before the next stop which was Navajo National Monument. It was a considerable distance off our path, but had overlooked it when we were in closer range. Since Navajo nation does daylight savings time, we didn’t know if we could get there before it closed, but decided to take a chance. Then we still had at least two hours to drive back to Page for the night. We made it with 20 minutes to spare which isn’t enough time to see anything. But we got our stamps! Then we talked to the ranger a minute and found out they have a campground here! We felt blessed! So we found a couple of spots for the night and then went on the easy trail to see the cliff dwellings. It is about a mile and a half round trip from the campground, and classified as easy. Well, don’t say that to our old unconditioned bodies! I don’t know what the elevation is here, but it certainly makes you huff and puff as you ascend the “gentle” inclines. Somehow we made it back to the campers and have watched a beautiful sunset. There is another occupied campsite, maybe two, but it will be a quiet night, with some dark sky to see all the stars. 
I’m amazed that out here in the vast open lands we have a good mifi signal, so I got yesterday’s blog posted. I’m almost out of battery, so will get the pictures in and post this tomorrow when we leave.
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