Wupatki National Monument

Having just chilled ourselves with the snow at Sunset Crater, it was an easy drive over to Wupatki National Monument to warm up. Wupatki is at lower elevation than Sunset Crater, so it tends to be warmer, and on Friday we found it about ten degrees warmer, with no snow showers. Wupatki is one of several abandoned pueblos in this area, and probably the largest and most complete.

As you can tell in this photo of the main structure, no one has lived here for awhile, and some of the structure has been reinforced or repaired in hopes of reducing further deterioration. I wonder, if my home were left undisturbed for several hundred years, would archaeologists descend upon it and declare it a national monument?

Those that have studied this site believe several tribes have inhabited the location over several centuries, and evidently it is not as attractive as a homesite now as it once was. Since we have not studied the site in detail, nor been privileged to unearth the things left behind by past inhabitants, our comments will be based primarily on our initial impressions.

Here's a closer view of the main structure showing many rooms on, apparently, several levels, all constructed with flat stones held together with mortar. You'll notice some large rocks in some of the rooms, either as part of a wall, or occupying space inside the room. I've seen similar things done recently when folks wanted their home to be "an extension of the landscape around it." Is that what the first inhabitants here had in mind? I've heard some tribes described as having a close connection to the earth, but sharing your room with a boulder is lost on me.

It's evident this pueblo was built on a rock outcropping intentionally. There are plenty of suitably sized spaces between the rocks in this area that I think would have provided wonderful building sites, but then I wasn't here to influence the opinions of the original builders. I examined this room with Gretel and asked for her opinion of why the room was built with the stone in the corner. Gretel thinks the top of the stone makes a nice shelf, and the space beneath the stone looks like a great spot to hide things out of the way. Of all the mysteries of this abandoned dwelling, I think the rationale behind building your home with rocks protruding into your rooms may be the one that puzzles me the most.

This is a reconstructed ball court near the house, which I'm told is evidence that people south of here had an influence on the inhabitants here, since this type of court is more common in Mexico, and this is the northernmost example of this type.

In our opinion, this is the most interesting feature of all: a natural blowhole. This little stone structure was built around a small hole in the ground that connects to a larger cavern underground. When we visited, the pressure inside the cavern was higher than the pressure at the surface so air was rushing out of the hole at 20 to 30 mph. If you look closely, you can see the hair around the girls' faces being blown back by the breeze coming out of the hole. We thought about it too late to try, but it would be neat to see if the air would levitate a hat released above it.

Here's a little description of the conditions that create this geologic feature.

For this last image of this post we head back into Flagstaff where we discovered a rare fast food combination: Taco Bell and Long John Silvers in the same building. We've seen LJS and A&W, TB and KFC, but this is the first time we've run into the long-sought TB & LJS combination. We ate here twice. Thanks for visiting!