Tuesday 26 January 2010

Walnut Canyon National Monument, Arizona



This was a special one day project to help clear the trails so that the public could still access much of the monument. It was quite nice to be up early and working having spent over a week pottering around in Flagstaff. Having said that the day started pretty poorly with little organisation which resulted in over 30 volunteers crammed into a living all trying to make their lunch!

Walnut Canyon is about 10 miles from Flagstaff and we were soon there and after our stretches and a safety briefing we divided into two crews and started shovelling. Our first task was to clear the path leading to the visitor centre and after 10 minutes it looked as if this was going to be a long day.

However, once we moved onto the 'Rim Trail' things started to brighten up and we were afforded stunning views across and down into the snow covered canyon.During our lunch at one of the lookout points we spotted a trio of deer which is pretty much the first major piece of wildlife I have seen. We then moved away from the rim and helped dig out the trail, almost completing the full loop before we had to leave early as our supervisor had a meeting back in town. We saw a couple of hikers during the day and it was satisfying to know that our work had enabled them to experience a little bit of this fantastic location. You can see all of the pictures here.