Walnut Canyon National Monument

Walnut Canyon is 12 kilometres east of downtown Flagstaff and contains the well-preserved cliff dwellings of the Sinagua people, built into the limestone walls of a shallow canyon in the 12th and 13th centuries. The Island Trail loops around a rocky promontory and passes directly through 25 cliff rooms — rooms that the Sinagua carved out of natural alcoves in the canyon wall and used for homes, storage, and other purposes.

The canyon is a striking contrast to the ponderosa pine forest above: different microclimate, different vegetation, different sense of scale. The rim trail is easier than the Island Trail and good for anyone who cannot manage the 185-step descent and climb back. The visitor centre has good exhibits on Sinagua life and the region's archaeology.

things to do sight museum
A story
The Sinagua people who built the cliff dwellings at Walnut Canyon abandoned them around 1250 CE, likely within a single generation. Archaeologists still debate whether drought, resource depletion, or social upheaval drove the departure. The dwellings were so well constructed that they stood essentially intact for 700 years before the site was first documented by non-Native Americans in the 1880s.