I had some time on my hands to I checked the ruins at Walnut Canyon. This is another ruin connected to the Ancient Puebloans. Archeologists believe they abandon this site around 1250. They were cliff dwellers like the people of Mesa Verde. It is believed they were ancestors of the Hopi Indians. All I can say is that these people were excellent mountain climbers. You have to imagine back 10,000 years, with the technology of the time how they managed to build shelters in a side of a mountain, but they did.
While there is no actual proof, but many archeologists believe these ancient people traded and shared with each other because of similarities they found at other sites like Mesa Verde. There were 2 trails rim and island trails. The island trail goes down the cliffs to see the ruins. It is 185 feet down the cliff side, 240 steps and you are at 7000 feet. It was in the 60’s and sun shining, so a pleasant day for this type of activity. The trail was only a mile in length, but you are actually walking a trail on a side of a mountain. The rim trail was an easy 3/4 mile trail of the ruins on the top. They believe at one time there might have been around 700 people living here. One of the pictures shows the The Canyon information center on top of the cliff and I added a red star below to show how far down the cliff island trail is.
