Walhalla Glades

About 13 miles up the road from its fork with Point Imperial Road, across the road from the Walhalla Overlook parking area, is one of the North Rim [1]’s most interesting prehistoric sites, Walhalla Glades.

This village was occupied by the Ancestral Puebloans approximately a.d. 1050-1150. Archaeologists have studied their 10-room dwelling, learning about Puebloan daily life from pottery shards, chipped stone, and architecture.

Scattered over the Walhalla Plateau [2] are more than 100 farming sites where the Puebloans grew corn, beans, and squash during summer months. Because the plateau is lower than surrounding elevations, warm updrafts melted winter snow and made earlier planting possible.

During winters, some of the pueblo’s residents migrated into the canyon, where they could farm in the desert climes of Unkar Delta, visible from the overlook. At Unkar Delta, a two-day journey from the rim, they built a pueblo of more than 50 rooms, the inner canyon’s largest archaeological site.

During the summer months, rangers lead guided tours from Walhalla Overlook to the ruins of Walhalla Glades, discussing how people subsisted here on the North Rim 1,000 years ago.

A granary, evidence of the Ancestral Puebloans’ farming activities, can be seen along the Cliff Spring Trail [3], which begins a mile farther up the road. Access to the trail is across from the paved Angel’s Window overlook (about 14 miles south of the fork to Cape Royal).