10-16-2007

This is our second stop for the day:

Wupatki National Monument

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This was another incredible place to visit. In this picture you can see the general layout of it. This was taken from the beginning of the path just outside the visitor's center.

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The whole path is 1/2 mile round trip and you need atleast 45 minutes to walk it and see everything. Picking up a trail guide (book) is a great help so you know what you are looking at. :)

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Here is another picture of the ruins from the beginning of the trail.
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This picture to the right is one of the Community Room, otherwise known as a Kiva. It was used for rituals and ceremonies. Usually they have a roof on them but this one was found without it.

The kids all went down into it with two of the adults. I decided to stay higher up on the trail....(yes, I was being wimpy and didn't want to trudge back up the hill from the Kiva).
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In this picture we were allowed to go into one of the rooms of the ruins. It was really neat. We also got a break from the wind for a little bit :)
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The picture on the right shows a blowhole that was found. It's like a cave down in the earth and fresh air blows out of it.
The park put a brick build-up around the hole and a grate over it so no-one could go in or fall in.

It was fascinating to feel how hard the air was blowing out!

You can see by the kid's hair that it was pretty forceful.
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In this picture on the left, you see Autumn in the grey shirt. Those are her ponytails flying straight up in the air from the force of the air blowing out! LOL!! It was so much fun.

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The kids also had fun putting their shirts over the air and letting it blow up into them. It made them look like sumu wrestlers..haha!