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Gerry assures me that we visited this site in 1997 on our way from our three days at the Grand Canyon to Flagstaff, but I have no memory of it. Of course in those days he didn't take fifty to a hundred pictures of every place we visited so there is less to jog my memory.

Ancient Pueblo

Ancient Pueblo

To get to Wupatki from Flagstaff means losing quite a bit of altitude and gaining quite a bit of heat. The drive starts out in pine forest that slowly changes to scrub oak and pinyon pine and then gets progressively scrubbier until finally you get down to semi-desert with its cactuses and the like. At the end of the day, reversing the order it is most delightful to re-emerge once again in the cool pine forests around Flagstaff.

Ancient Pueblo

Ancient Pueblo

Wupatki's remains are thought to pre-date the settlements of the cliff-dwelling pueblo Indians, but like Betatakin the inhabitants may have been ancestors of the Hopi. Similar in size and age to Tuzigoot, Wupatki's ruins are located in a broad valley and like Tuzigoot have views for ever more. They are, of course, well restored and maintained as are all National Park Service sites. We braved the noonday sun to follow the trail that meanders through the site and then scuttled back into the cool of the visitor's center to browse the museum and small shop. Of course, by the time you have visited half a dozen Indian sites, the bookstore begins to look familiar, and its stock to feel like old friends.