We got out of town for a couple days and spent the last (hopefully) hot days of summer in the cooler elevations of Flagstaff, Arizona, a few hours north of Phoenix.  One of our side excursions was to visit the

Wupatki National Monument

. This place is one of the earliest examples of the DIY movement, somehow created by handy people without big box home centers, lithium-ion cordless tools, and carbide tipped blades.

These dwellings dotted across the landscape are a testament to what happens to a home when you don't keep up with routine maintenance. In a just under the short 800 years since they were abandoned, these homes are showing signs of serious wear.

I think if our home was left to the elements, it would be rubble in less than 50 years.

This Wupatki Pueblo once had about 100 rooms and three stories. It was abandoned sometime around 1250.

I'm pretty sure the garage was on the left.

These dwellings were built in the 1100's and eventually supported a large farming community scratching out a living in the arid desert. Somehow, they survived without GFCI outlets, granite countertops, gas-filled double-pane windows, and stainless appliances.

You can see where they hung the widescreen for their Super Bowl parties.

It was incredible to walk through such old buildings, likely among the oldest in the country. They were hand-built, from sandstone slabs, limestone blocks and chunks of basalt set with a clay mortar, 

This was actually a trash pit. 

We probably visited 10 of these Pueblos, scattered around the scrub-land. The National Park Service did a great job with the roads and trails, making the visit an easy one. 

The collapsed "Citadel" tops this steep, rocky hillside

Ever adventurous Gracie was super exited to check this cool room out behind the little door opening...

Nope! Spiders!!!

There were such straight walls and sharp corners, built without laser levels and power tools.

My truck, far below the ruins of the Citadel.

Many of the Pueblos were built alongside dry ravines, that would have flowed with water at times. 

We really had a good time, hiking around and exploring in the incredible silence and fresh air. Our lizard spotting count was 17 for the day. 

It was a really cool side trip. In the 20+ mile loop, we drove through several completely different biomes, in addition to the rocky grasslands. Tucked into the piney woods were the lava flows and cinder cones of volcanic eruptions from sometime between the years 1040 and 1100.

We could also see the painted desert in the distance. 

Those things in the distance look like the Devil's Tower, from

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

. Perhaps on a future trip we'll check those out. 

I'll be back in tool-wielding remodeling and fix-it action next time, but I thought I'd share this neat excursion.