Today we were higher than the city of Denver. Our RV climbed to about 7000 feet as we drove to Walnut Canyon, a national monument with early Hopi Indian ruins. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. There were 278 steps down (Evie counted) plus some flat, very narrow trails. The Indian dwellings had been dug out of the canyon walls and some of them even had little windows. The bottom of the canyon used to be a sea bed millions of years ago and when we reached the bottom, it was almost perfectly quiet. This particular place in the canyon was considered sacred by the local Indian tribes and there were very strict rules about noise level and what you could/could not touch. The way down wasn't nearly as strenuous as the way back up - imagine climbing 185 vertical feet at such a high elevation. We were all huffing and puffing and felt incredibly out of shape. After we left Walnut Canyon, we drove to Meteor Crater - the most well-preserved and first proven meteor impact site in the United States. It's hard to describe the enormity of the crater. The diameter was equivalent to 20 football fields, and rocks on the other side that looked tiny were actually the size of your average house. There were 4 viewing platforms with telescopes to see various aspects of the crater like the raised strata, a drill hole, and many of the large rocks. This impact site has been crucial to discovering many of the secrets of our solar system. It was sort of eerie but awesome at the same time. After we left there we drove to Holbrook (stopping in Winslow, AZ to take a picture at the corner there ... it's in some old song with which I'm not familiar because I am only 17 after all) and had dinner at Butterfield Steakhouse. Now we're hooked up at the Holbrook KOA and tomorrow we're seeing the petrified forest. Good night!
-Lucy Eckman
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