Travis's Daily Journal -Casa Grande Ruins NM

This morning we were woken up super early and went on a hike. Ainsley led the hike. It was a short trail, but felt long to me. Dad and I walked together. There were lots of cacti on the trail. Mom accidentally kicked one and it stuck into her ankle. Ouch!

I went to Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. We found a secret room and an owl in the ruins. I learned the Ancestral Sonoran Desert people traded in macaw feathers and obsidian for pottery and corn. I also learned that Ancestral Sonoran Desert people used a lot of irrigation canals. They actually made them by using simple hand tools. Amazing! I asked the ranger why the compounds had walls if these people didn’t have enemies. He wasn’t sure. I think they used the walls to keep out wild animals that tried to steal their corn.

Back on the road, we saw some tanks at a gas station. Strange place for a military museum! We made it to our campsite in California. It has a really pretty lake. There were some ducks that went in circles a ton of times. One of them looks like the AFLAC duck! The scenery here is really pretty. I did my math work near the lake.