5.2 miles away
Picture Canyon Natural and Cultural Preserve
A 478-acre Flagstaff preserve of Sinagua petroglyphs, bought by the city in 2012 after decades of community campaigning.
Walnut Canyon National Monument
Sinagua cliff dwellings in the ledges of a canyon near Flagstaff, reached by a trail that drops 185 feet.
- Rank in Arizona
- #61of 727 ranked
- Overall score
- Score 54.7 out of 100high confidence
- Annual visits
- 187,205counted in 2024
- Category
- National Monument
Walnut Canyon National Monument, known in Hopi as Wupatupqa, lies about ten miles south-east of downtown Flagstaff near Interstate 40. The canyon rim stands at 6,690 feet and its floor 350 feet lower. A 0.9-mile loop trail descends 185 feet into the canyon, passing 25 cliff dwelling rooms built by the Sinagua, a pre-Columbian cultural group who lived in Walnut Canyon from about 1100 to 1250 AD. Other Sinagua habitations of the same period are preserved at the nearby Tuzigoot and Montezuma Castle national monuments. It recorded 187,205 recreation visits in 2024.
Where it is
Walnut Canyon National Monument is a national monument near Flagstaff, in Coconino County. It is one of the national monuments in this database, and appears in the statewide ranking of Arizona attractions.
How this ranking was reached
The score combines the published visitor count with public interest and tourism significance, which is what earns it high confidence. The weighting is explained in full on the methodology page, and every axis is broken out under Facts and sources at the foot of this page.
Note on the data: The 2025 series reports zero recreation visits for month 10, a reporting gap rather than a measured figure, so 2024 is used as the reference year.
Sources
- Visitation: National Park Service Visitor Use Statistics(opens in a new tab)
- Public interest: Wikimedia pageviews (en.wikipedia, human traffic), 2024
- Coordinates and designations: Wikidata(opens in a new tab)
- County: U.S. Census geography via FCC Area API, resolved from coordinates
- Official site: http://www.nps.gov/waca/(opens in a new tab)
Record last verified 2026-08-12.
More photographs
Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net)., CC BY-SA 4.0 · licence(opens in a new tab) · source(opens in a new tab) 
Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net)., CC BY-SA 4.0 · licence(opens in a new tab) · source(opens in a new tab)
Nearby attractions
6.2 miles away
Winona Site
A Coconino County site where 1940s excavations found Hohokam pit houses, though later researchers link finds to the Sinagua instead.
6.5 miles away
Elden Pueblo Historic Site
A Sinagua archaeological site in Flagstaff with an interpretive trail, managed by the Coconino National Forest Service for education programs.
7.5 miles away
Mount Elden
A dormant lava dome rising to 9,301 feet above Flagstaff, crossed by Coconino National Forest trails including the Elden Lookout Trail.
8.5 miles away
Walkup Skydome
An 11,230-seat indoor stadium at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, home to the NAU Lumberjacks.8.9 miles away
Northern Arizona University Art Museum
The Northern Arizona University Art Museum, in Flagstaff, Arizona, holds rotating exhibits of local and international art.
Facts and sources
Place
- Category
- National Monument
- Destination
- Flagstaff
- County
- Coconino County
- State
- Arizona
- Designations
- National Register of Historic Places listed place
Visitation
- Annual visits
- 187,205 (2024)
- What is counted
- recreation visits
Ranking
- Overall score
- 54.7 / 100
- Visitation score
- 44.7
- Popularity score
- 38.6
- Significance score
- 83.0
- Confidence
- high
Visiting
- Official website
- nps.gov(opens in a new tab)
- Coordinates
- 35.1658, -111.5019
- Last verified
- 2026-08-12