At a certain point in the trip, we just needed to get out and stretch our legs. Since we'd both just quit our jobs, and there was no real rush to get to St. Louis, we made a couple tourist stops along the way - especially since we both figured that this would be the only time we'd ever see some of these sites. Such as: Cliff dwellings in Arizona, the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert, the Dinosaur Museum in Tucumcari, etc.
This was a nice hike - got the blood flowing in the legs again.
This is the Walnut Canyon National Monument/Park. That's just one of hundreds of cliff dwellings you're looking at in this picture. It's easily about 900 years old.
They're built into the sides of the canyon walls, so you start off at the top of the rim, and work your way down.
At first, you don't really see them.. until you look all around you and realize you're surrounded by these things.
If you want more information about these, make sure you click that link up there...
Trees and rocks.
More trees and rocks.
Considering that Keith took these pictures, see how a theme is developing here?
So basically, they start you off looking at these things from a distance...
then they get you walking downhill...