(Distance from Route 66...approx. 15 miles to south entrance, 40 mile roundtrip.  Allow at least 3-5 hours.) 

    Depicted on a myriad number of early postcards (see this example to the right), Sunset Crater has been keeping a watchful eye over the Route 66 traveler for decades.  Easily visible from the earlier alignments near Padre Canyon and Winona, the modern traveler whizzes by too quickly to on I-40 to catch more than a cursory glance out the window.  Well, be sure to take more than a glance.  It's well worth it. 

    Though just 15 or so miles north of Flagstaff, the Sunset Crater and Wupatki National Monuments are often over-looked by travelers/tourists on their way to see the 'Big Hole'-The Grand Canyon.  They are truly missing out on wonderful examples of natural and cultural history.  A single loop road will take you from the Ponderosa Pine country past Sunset Crater and drop you down a spectacular road past Strawberry Crater and onto the Painted Desert plateau.  There, centuries of Indian cultural heritage remain, thankfully protected now, to be explored and enjoyed by all.  These are some of the most beautiful Indian ruins I have seen anywhere in the Southwest.

  Part of the extensive and relatively young San Francisco volcanic field (of which Mt. Humphries is the patriarch), Sunset Crater is virtually (geologically speaking) a newborn.  Eruptions dated to around A.D. 1064-65 and built the classic cinder cone which is still so evident today.  As a matter of fact, check out my pic to the right...as the eruption died down, the compilation and consistency of the hurled magma fragments changed subtly...leaving us the more reddish cinders near the top of the cone which helped give the cone it's character and name.  

    This is a wonderful area to explore, and the Park Service has done a great job of providing trails that take you right to the base of the mountain.  You'll pass incredible lava tubes, flows of blocky aa (ah-ah) lava (see pic to the left), and the skeletons of Juniper and Ponderosa pines that were unfortunate enough to lie in the path of the encroaching, burning tide.  Though appearing as if the eruption and subsequent lave flows were just last year, a closer examination will reveal the lichens and young seedlings even now trying to break down the hard rock into soil.  You are literally watching the evolution and transformation of the earth around you.

    Be sure to leave some energy and time for Wupatki!  Take the park loop road north, and enjoy the spectacular vistas as you drop down to the Painted Desert.  This country has been a crossroads of different Indian cultures for thousands of years.  There exist more than 2700 mapped sites within this area, verifying the fact that at least at one time in the past, this area was a busy center of trade and extended family units.  Indeed, archeologists have found artifacts and influence from the Sinagua, Kayenta; Anasazi, and Cohonina peoples.  However, much evidence seems to point to the Sunset Crater eruption as the final de-stabilizing influence that helped to drive out the last remnants of an already slowly declining area population.

    Re-settled in the past 400-500 years as the Hopis and Navajo moved into the area, these tribes still hold many of these ruins and surrounding mountains as sacred.  Thankfully, Wupatki has been a National Monument since 1924, under the protection and watchful eye of the Park Service.  Major sites include Wukoki ('Big House' and my personal favorite ruin-it's just so desolate and beautiful out here.  See pics at right), The Citadel, Lomaki ('Beautiful House'), and Wupatki ('Tall House'-see lower left pic).  Note the sandstone slabs lying on the ground all around the Wupatki ruin.  No shortage of building materials here!

    One can climb in and around many of these ruins, but please remain careful and respectful so that others may enjoy the area behind you.  Continue on the loop road west, and reconnect with Highway 89 back to our favorite Route in Arizona.