Something we've never seen before

Today we spent the morning in the Grand Canyon [above the Grand Canyon?].  The best over look was called Yavapai. It was amazing!
In one spot we could see rafts along the river and Phantom Ranch.

Look at the cloud shadows!

We probably would have stayed longer, but we had other items on the itinerary!

Ravens became our companions for the entire trip. They are really entertaining birds!!!!

We made our way from the Grand Canyon to the Wuptaki National Monument. We had our lunch at the Box Canyon and Lomaki ruins. 

These were off to our left as we sat at the table.

This was called the Nalakihu Pueblo:

And here's an "ancient ruin". 😂

If we had known what was coming, we wouldn't have spent time visiting these first ruins. One of the most amazing things I have ever seen was the Wupatki Pueblo! Get ready to be wowed:

Because of the location, size [100 rooms], and height of this village it was probably not a typical household but a community gathering place. There is nothing like it in the region.

This is found just below the structure above and was used for community meetings:

This was a ball court:

These are close ups of some of the rooms:

Down by the ball court was another "something I've never seen before" - a blow hole.

This is me standing over the blow hole!!!

If you know what a blow hole is, you can scroll on down. If you don't, read on:

A blow hole is a crevice in the earth's crust that seems to "breathe". It connects to an underground passage called an earthcrack. They have no idea how big the passage is but it was caused by earthquake activity. If the outside air pressure is lower than the pressure inside the crack, then air is blown out of the hole. If the air pressure is less than inside then the air is sucked in. Guess which one the video shows!!

These wooden beams are 800 years old!!!

You can tell that we LOVED this place. 

We also made a short stop at the Wukoki Pueblo

Cool place!

Our next drive took us through the Sunset Crater Volcanic National Monument. It was also amazing. The whole landscape is either volcanic ash or lava.

This is Sunset Crater

We didn't have time for more than a drive-through because we had another stop to make before closing time. We went the the Meteor Crater. I've never seen a crater made by a meteor before! 

Here are some facts about the crater:

Other facts:

By the time the crater hit the earth it was traveling at 40,000 mph!

It was 4,000 ft across. At the time of impact the crater was 700 ft deep - it would have engulfed a 60-story building. It is now 550 ft deep due to erosion. But, you could have 20 football games going on at the same time in the base of the crater!

This is the largest fragment of the meteor that they found:

This was in the courtyard of the museum. I thought it was cool, even though it was a test capsule!!

Most of this day was spent in or just outside of the Navajo Nation, so most of the people we saw were Navajo. We found it interesting/funny that Chinese food is very popular in the Navajo Nation. That is what we had for dinner!!

Another wonderful day!!