Wupatki and Sunset Crater National Monuments are adjacent to each other along a parkway, just northeast of Flagstaff. We visited Wupatki National Monument first. These pueblos were first built around 1100 shortly after the eruption of Sunset Crater Volcano. No one knows exactly why this area was abandoned around 1250.
WUPATKI PUEBLO
This pueblo is accessed by a short path behind the Visitor Center.
This is the largest pueblo ruins on the National Monument Land.
It consisted of about 100 rooms.
This is the Ball court.
This site also contains a geological blowhole, from which wind escapes from a cave system
CITADEL PUEBLO
Further down the parkway is the Citadel Pueblo. The Citadel Ruin must have
looked mighty formidable perched high upon this mesa.
The builders made use of every inch of the little mesa by erecting the outside
walls right on the edge of the cliffs.
LOMAKI PUEBLO
The word Lomaki is "Beautiful House" in the Hopi language.
This multi room pueblo sits on the edge of a crevice.
We came across this collared lizard on our hike.
BOX CANYON DWELLINGS
WUKOKI PUEBLO
This "Big House" is built on the top of a large sandstone outcropping.
SUNSET CRATER VOLCANO NATIONAL MONUMENT
Sunset Crater is a large cinder cone just northeast of Flagstaff. This is the newest of a string of volcanos with its last eruption about 1085. We visited here 28 years ago and noticed that there was a lot more vegetation on the rim now.
We took the Lava Flow Trail
This is called a squeeze tube, where clay consistency lava was squeezed up through cracks.
Rabbit Bush was blooming everywhere on the cinders.
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