The area’s history goes back to ancient times, when the Ancestral Puebloans lived there between 300 BCE and 1250 CE. Today, it remains part of the ancestral homeland of the Navajo (Diné), Zuni, and Hopi.
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The Grand Canyon is a record of Earth’s history. The oldest rocks exposed in the canyon are nearly 2 billion years old. Layers of sandstone, limestone, and shale preserve ancient environments, including oceans, deserts, and forests. The canyon itself was mainly shaped by erosion from the Colorado
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Recognizing the importance of preserving these resources, President Woodrow Wilson established Walnut Canyon as a national monument on November 30, 1915, protecting its archaeological sites for future generations.
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The area was known before the town developed as Antelope Spring, referring to a spring near what is now Mars Hill. The commonly accepted story dates the name to July 4, 1876. A group of emigrants from Boston camped in the area while traveling west.
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Stop six on our road trip: Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, where the Ancestral Pueblo people built more than 600 cliff dwellings.
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Stop five, La Junta, Colorado: the cabin we booked turned out to be a one-room trailer all but in a Walmart parking lot. It was actually pretty nice.
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Stop four on our road trip: Oakley, Kansas, a town founded in 1884 along the old Smoky Hill Trail, the settlers' route across the Great Plains.
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Stop three on our road trip: Abilene, Kansas, the first major cowtown, where Joseph McCoy's stockyards shipped Texas longhorns east from 1867.
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Route 66 was once a key path for people heading west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, helping to boost the economies of towns along the way.
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We couldn’t find the Route 66 pavement in Springfield, Illinois, so we headed to visit our friends Clint and Nancy in Saint Joseph, Missouri.
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I planned since October 2025, for this epic trip. And it did not disappoint us. We made a few changes along the way, but the changes only enhanced the trip.
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If you want to escape the crowds and experience one of the most picturesque spots in Hocking Hills, Cantwell Cliffs is your destination.
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