Sunset Crater Volcano and Wupatki National Monuments

 Saturday morning, we headed to Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. We had tried to visit here once before in 2013 but were prevented from doing so due to a federal government shutdown. We are glad we made it back! 

Sarah, Matthew, Me and Megan

We first hiked the short A'a Trail, which had basaltic lava along the trail. The Sunset Crater Volcano erupted around 1080 AD.

Megan, Matthew and Me

Matthew

Matthew, Me, Megan and Sarah walking along the Bonita Vista Trail

A few views of the Bonito Lava Flow.

The pink flowers contrast nicely with the dark rock.

We hiked the Lava Flow Trail which was one of our favorite trails of the trip. There are multiple volcanic features including a squeeze-up, a spatter cone and a lava tube.

U with a cool looking tree.

Interesting tree formation

It makes a nice frame.

U and Me

Matthew

Some hardy trees!

A squeeze-up. It is the fin-like shape that formed when thick lava squeezed up through cracks in the earth's crust. If you look closely, you can see vertical lines along the feature.

Panoramic of the lava field.

Matthew, Sarah and Megan

Serious Sarah. She deliberately didn't want to smile.

Kids being kids.

Another view with the San Francisco Peaks in the background (can you see the trees changing color?).

Matthew wanted a picture with these rocks.

This tree looked like a dragon to Megan and Matthew.

The vertical branch looked like a hawk to Matthew.

Nice hat Megan!

Matthew with the spatter cone.

We drove up the road a few miles to Wupatki National Monument. The area was first inhabited around 500 AD and the site was permanently abandoned around 1225 AD. Our first stop was the Wukoki Pueblo.

The Pueblo is built on a large rock giving them a view for miles around.

Some of the walls are well preserved.

Here you can see where they cut parts of the underlying rock out to make the rest of the pueblo.

Matthew and U inside the remaining room.

Sisters taking a break in the shade. Megan had twisted her ankle.

From the other side you can see how far up this pueblo sat.

A piece of broken pottery in the dirt.

This is the Wupatki Pueblo.  It was very large with 104 rooms and had several ancillary buildings including a meeting space and a ball court.  There was also a blowhole here where there was an opening to some underground caves. The breeze felt like air conditioning.

Matthew hanging out in the ball court.

Hello mom! The Lomaki pueblo had several intact rooms that you could go in.

Someone had put this rock into an alcove here.  It looks like a buffalo but we are guessing it isn't a period piece.

A picture of the Box Canyon pueblo from below.