Sunset Crater Volcano Nat'l Monument and Wukoki & Wapatki Pueblo Ruins

Monday, April 27,2015

It was a beautiful morning.

Aren't the clouds beautiful!?!

This is Sunset Crater as we turned into park headed for the visitor center.  It erupted fairly recently, about 900 years ago.  The eruption of this volcano reshaped the surrounding landscape, forever changing the lives of people, plants and animals.

On the way to the visitor center there were lots prairie dogs.  Tic got a good picture of this one.

Look how rugged this lava looks.  Also notice the brown area on the hill in the background.

Tic zoomed in on that brown area and this is what we saw.  Looks like a sink hole, don't you think?
Interesting!  Another person with some binoculars agreed that it looked like a sink hole.

We read that most trees growing out of the lava grew twisted.  This tree certainly looks that way.

This panoramic shows how rugged the lava is.  Also notice how little vegetation there is.

This is a unique dead tree along the path through the lava flow area around the visitor center.

Look at this tree.  The left side looks like it got hit by lightening so it took this strange curve.  The right side looks like a strong tree.

It is  amazing how the pine trees are almost the only thing growing out of the lava.

This formation of lava was called a Squeeze-Up.  That is when hot lava flows up through a crack in already solidified lava.

The lava changed in areas from rugged to almost like crushed cinders.

We are leaving this area and headed to the pueblo ruins.

This is a view point where we are looking at the edge of the Painted Desert off in the distance.

Here we are at the Wukoki Pueblo Ruins.

This is a close-up of how the structure was built.  Fascinating how uniform many of the "bricks" are.

Tic is standing behind one of the walls to give a perspective on the height of this 2 story building.

Look how short this doorway is.  These people must have been really small!

We are now at the Wupatki Pueblo Ruins. This is one of the largest pueblo ruins we have seen. 

Look at the size when the structure was complete and active.

There are at least 2 of these ceremonial rings.

Tic took this panoramic showing the whole area this pueblo covered.  You have to look hard in the middle right side of the picture to see the second ring.  It is smaller than the closer ring.

We are next headed to the East entrance to the Grand Canyon.  See the next post.