Day 40

Walnut Canyon day. We woke to the same gorgeous red canyons as the precious day. However, this morning was a little less peaceful as the tent was aggressively covered in frost, which results in a leaky ceiling. With her new gloves to try out, Lucy attempted in vain to remove the frost before the inside of our home became a swimming pool. 


We meandered up the canyon on a clay path amongst pines, which continued for the first 11 miles. Due to a lack of water, we decided we may as well take the detour to the Walnut Canyon National Monument visitor centre. We even managed to charm a ranger into letting us in free of charge. The canyon is home to over 300 cliff dwellings of the Sinagua tribe from around 1200CE. These dwellings were literally carved into the rock - see the incredible pictures below. We also found it weird to be surrounded by tourists and general society. 


Back on the trail, we had a brief interlude of turquoise fields before finishing back in Pine forests only half a mile from the road into town, and precariously close to someone’s barn. Including our cultural detour, we had our longest day yet - hitting over 22 miles!
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1p6lVEq1rZs9R83VwhvAbMIYuyaBBkdmlhttps://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1dnymKk9759zQkA1-f2eFmuvbpIAyCZfmhttps://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1l9ORZ3ohAlbCHMEWJIKjOPg7Cqomh_Hghttps://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1SJIdviA4gdDmDbYWKyeVwd4V2aw9D9rGhttps://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1_VK9ff-3SyDyTIw7FgowNOa6eKg_yR80https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1-9yjx_iD7bVkdSg_w2NQ1Snr7ocfVZkZ

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