Walnut Canyon NM
— small rooms in the wall of a canyon.
Not only on a wall.
Walnut Canyon NM, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“Walnut Canyon cuts about 600 feet into the limestone east of Flagstaff. The Sinagua people built cliff dwellings into the long south-facing alcoves between roughly 1100 and 1250, then left. The Island Trail drops 240 steps off the rim and loops past about twenty-five of those rooms, close enough to see the soot above the doorways. Walnut Creek runs at the bottom. Ponderosa above, Douglas fir on the cooler north walls, juniper everywhere. A small, held canyon. from the studio
The place, in three passes.
Walnut Canyon National Monument lies about ten miles east of Flagstaff, Arizona, in Coconino County, just south of Interstate 40. The visitor center sits near the rim at roughly 6,690 feet. The canyon is cut into Kaibab Limestone by Walnut Creek and runs about 600 feet deep at the monument. The site preserves more than eighty cliff dwellings built by the Sinagua culture between approximately 1100 and 1250, after which the canyon was depopulated. The monument was established by presidential proclamation in 1915.
The dwellings are tucked into long horizontal alcoves where a softer layer weathered out beneath the harder Kaibab Limestone caprock — south-facing, sun-warmed in winter, shaded by the overhang in summer. Walls were laid up in stone with clay mortar, often only enclosing the front of a natural recess, so each room is half-built and half-given. Roof beams, hearths, and soot stains survive in many of the alcoves. The Island Trail descends about 185 feet by 240 stone steps and passes roughly twenty-five of the dwellings on a paved loop.
The monument is open year-round, with the visitor center and the Island Trail accessible during daytime hours; check current park hours before driving up. The Island Trail loops about a mile with 240 stone steps and a 185-foot vertical return — moderate at elevation, harder in summer afternoon heat or after winter snow. The shorter Rim Trail stays level along the canyon edge. Winter mornings are common in the 20s°F and summer afternoons can build monsoon storms quickly. Pets are not permitted on the Island Trail.
