Mile 53 - Nankoweap Canyon and Granaries

Nankoweap is a Southern Paiute word meaning singing or echo canyon. A trail beginning from a large camp below the mouth of the canyon and creek leads hikers up a steep slope to one of the most sought after views the canyon has to offer. Above this viewpoint in the limestone walls under an overhang sit four granaries, or storage units; built and utilized by Native Americans from the Ancestral Puebloan culture. These canyon dwellers practiced hunting and gathering in the canyon, in addition to growing crops on the Nankoweap delta, roughly 1,000 years ago. It was possible for the granaries to be sealed air-tight, which kept the contents of the granaries -often times ground corn- fully protected from rodents, insects, and elements of weathering.