Walnut Canyon National Monument is a part of the National Park Service and is a use-fee area. There are two trails leading away from the Visitor Center, the 0.7 mile Rim Trail and the 0.9 Island Trail. The Island trail leads down 240 steps to about the middle level of the peninsula formed in the center of an Oxbow bend of Walnut Creek. From that level the path loops around the "island", taking you past 25 cliff dwelling ruins. The Rim Trail overlooks the canyon and passes the ruins of some of the rim-top structures. The canyon is approximately 350 ft deep from the rim to the creek bed.

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Bring your own supply of water, water is not available on the trails.

These cliff dwellings were only occupied for about 100 years, being constructed around 1125 and vacated by around 1250. The people are known today as the Sinaqua - Spanish for "without water", and they seem to have been the canyon's only permanent residents, although the canyon had previously had been visited by the seasonal migrations of earlier peoples. It is believed that the Sinaqua were in the San Francisco volcanic region and moved to the canyon after the period of eruptions by the nearby Sunset Crater. Originally the Sinaqua built one room pit houses near their agricultural fields but their cliff dwelling descendents built one room dwellings, condominium style, under overhanging sandstone formations. Because of the arid conditions of the region, the Sinaqua depended upon stored water and developed dry-land farming techniques.

Until the advent of the railroads, the abandoned ruins were largely undisturbed, but along with the railroads the 1880s brought souvenir hunters to the ancient dwellings. The souvenir hunters were extremely damaging to the ruins, even going so far as to use dynamite to remove walls in order to improve the lighting conditions during their searches for pottery etc. Finally in 1915, the area was protected by being declared a national monument.

The canyon is quite narrow and it is possible to see other cliff dwellings on the opposite canyon wall across the creek. They are close enough to photograph with a 10X, or less, lenses and many of them appear to have escaped the wonton destruction visited upon the ruins along the Island Trail. The canyon is quiet until it's echo properties are discovered by youthful visitors who delight in this acoustic phenomenon. Their delightful calls to themselves must be reminiscent of the playful sounds of the ancient youths and the adult communications between neighbors.

Unfortunately, I was only able to allow about an hour for my visit to this Monument - it deserves much more. I had to choose one of the two trails and thus selected the Island Trail. The accompanying photos were taken along that trail.