Flagstaff was pretty, but colder than Cedar, when we were there. We did go for a walk in a nearby park and were lucky enough to see several Kaibab squirrels. Unfortunately, Denny had decided not to bring his camera. At first, we thought the squirrel was a rabbit because the Kaibab squirrel has long tufted ears. And, he only exists in one spot in the world, in an area 20x40 miles on the Kaibab plateau. The web says they are very shy so I guess we were lucky to see them!
Searching for warmth, we moved south to Sedona. The red rock area is beautiful. We had a lovely Mexican lunch in downtown Sedona and bought a couple of t-shirts. The downtown area is very touristy and contains mostly eateries and shops. Since we are not shoppers, we headed a bit north to Slide Rock state park. I had always wanted to see this natural area and it didn't disappoint. The park has an area where you can slide down the smooth sandstone in the river. Unfortunately, the river was freezing so we didn't get to see anyone slide.

The following day, I dragged Denny on an 8 mile hike in the desert. Way too long to be out in the hot sun! We had expected some shade and less mountainous terrain so were hot and tired when we returned.
Continuing our archaeological journey, we visited Tuzigoot National Monument. The Sinegua Indians built these underground homes in a hill. The homes were entered from the top. For some reason, we excavated them so they are now seen from above.

Next up, Montezuma's Castle, so-named because when it was first discovered it was believed to have been built by the Aztecs. But, it too was built by the Sinegua, a peace loving farming people. This group of Sinegua, lived in mountainside homes and farmed the nearby lands.

Montezuma's Castle

Moving on to V bar V ranch, we were able to view petroglyphs from the Sinegua people. There was a docent on site who explained how the times when the sun hit the drawings told them when to plant, and the time of year. Very interesting and smart!

The staircase looking petroglyph was the planting calendar.

As we were moving east toward New Mexico, we happened upon another National Monument called Walnut Canyon which was never even on our radar. But, we had time so we decided to stop and have lunch there. We were glad we did because it was gorgeous! Another marvel by the Sinegua people, a huge complex of cliff dwellings. We were able to walk down to a stone island and enter some of the dwellings. Of course, this involved a huge amount of steps and being quite near the cliff sides but it was worth it. Even the climb back up! They lived on several different levels. Each level had many homes connected, sort of like brownstones!

Two levels visible.

Standing on the cliff edge.

Multiple levels of homes visible. They actually lived on five different levels!

Ignore the very white legs, the purpose of this picture was to show how short these people must have been.

One of the few places that Denny didn't have to duck.

A row of homes (note the doorways) on the mountain island. The path, of course, was paved by the NPS.

The mountain island, if you enlarge this picture you can see the paved paths around it and stairways and railings.

By the way, for all of you readers over 62, the Senior National Park Pass has always been $10. But, according to the park ranger, because of budget cuts to the National Parks recently, they will be going up to $80 soon. So, if you don't have yours, you better get it soon!