A Snapshot and The Scoop: Wupatki

I've visited this small national monument set on the edge of the vast Painted Desert between volcanic cinder hills and sweeping prairie before, but this time I got to take my history-buff sister! Alisha and I made a special trip to Wupatki on our way home from the Grand Canyon last May just because I knew how much she would love the history and culture of the monument, and I had to share it with her. The ancient culture who lived, farmed, hunted, and built homes in this arid land are admirable for many reasons, not least that they lived next to an active volcano not too far to the south. All that remains of these ancestoral people are pottery shards and crumbling stone buildings, but you can't help but imagine how their lives once were.

Leave me a comment below and tell me if you've ever visited Wupatki National Monument near Flagstaff, AZ. Would you?

A Snapshot and The Scoop: Earth Cracks

Have you ever heard of earth cracks? These small breaks in the earth's crust tend to form in earthquake-prone areas, such as near active volcanoes, where the earth literally splits apart. On our visit to Wupatki National Monument this May my sister and I saw several of these earth cracks, relics from a time when the San Francisco Mountains surrounding Flagstaff, AZ were volcanic peaks that pumped ash and magma into the surrounding area. The ancient cultures who lived near the volcanoes used the natural dams inside earth cracks to catch and store rainwater, and so their culture was able to survive in the semi-arid prairie not far from the mountains. Their ruins still stand on the rims of earth cracks all over the area protected by Wupatki, and the crumbling rock and adobe walls can make you feel small and insignificant when standing in the shadow of the past.

Leave me a comment below and tell me if you've ever heard of earth cracks. Have you seen some before?

A Snapshot and The Scoop: The Blowhole

This unassuming, gated-off hole in the ground is actually a natural entrance to a giant underground chamber buried beneath the desert at Wupatki National Monument. The blowhole is so named because it "breathes", pushing air out or sucking air in depending on the temperature and pressure outside. When we were there the blowhole was blowing air out of it, though we at first couldn't tell which way the air was blowing. There are several blowhole sites around Wupatki, and like I said above these are entrances to underground chambers; these chambers are called earthcracks and appear as a result of earthquake activity in the surrounding limestone bedrock, which enlarge over time. Each chamber and blowhole is connected by one or more passages, though as of yet nobody has explored the size, depth, or complexity of the earthcracks. Wouldn't it be cool to do a little spelunking in the area?

Leave me a comment below and tell me if you've ever heard of earthcracks or blowholes. They aren't really caves, though they seem pretty similar if you ask me!

A Snapshot and The Scoop: Play Ball

While exploring Wupatki National Monument in northern Arizona my sister and I stopped to check out a reconstructed Ball Court. There is still some speculation as to the purpose of a ball court in the ancient indian's daily lives, but there is no doubt the ball court idea travelled all the way from the Aztec and Mayan cultures in Mexico. How neat is this!? Proof that trade of goods and ideas was already well in place a thousand years ago. Can you imagine people playing some sort of ball game here? Just picture it!

Leave me a comment below and let me know if you think this is as cool as I do!

A Snapshot and The Scoop: The Weight of History

Have you ever looked at something and really felt the weight of history on you? I mean, really realized that this piece of pottery, or statue, or arrowhead, or whatever, had human hands on it, shaping it, creating it. That human had a life, a family; they lived and breathed and talked and ate. They were real. They existed. Looking at the grindstones above, located at Wupatki National Monument in Arizona, I felt the weight of their history hover over me, and my sister and I were only visitors looking at a window into the past.

Leave me a comment below and tell me if you've ever experienced this awareness of past lives when looking at an artifact.