The kids didn't have school for President's Day. We wanted to go hiking but I wasn't sure if my knee was ready to go out in the woods yet. We've been wanting to check out Walnut Canyon so we decided to get up and get there early before the winds started up. I had heard it wasn't an ideal place to take younger kids since there weren't guard rails so I was a bit nervous but my kids were plenty old enough and we enjoyed our visit very much. I had checked the fees and it was $5 for 17+ but when we got there it was a fee free day I guess because of the holiday. It started getting really busy as we finished up and the wind started picking up so we had timed it just right.
When we first saw the dwellings as we entered the park we thought man they had to be short to fit in these but we were surprised as we got around on our trail how tall they were.
There were a couple that had these small doors. Out of curiousity the boys had to peek in and they could see traps, we later read that they get rodents that carry diseases that they try to catch in there.
This is was on the back side of the trail that circled around and Preston mentioned how he would've much rather been in the trees.
It was a very beautiful morning to go. That is the Visitor's Center on top.
I was surprised how nice the trail was...paved nearly the entire way and very beautifully landscaped.
This was named Island Trail, as you can see why.
We took the rim trail as well but other then just getting a better overview of the Island trail & one more set of dwellings there wasn't much to see.
We did spot 4 deer that had bedded down and watched them for a while.
This was a pit house.
A two room ruins near the pithouse.
It turned out to be a great visit, with great weather & some Red Lobster for lunch afterwards.
