Sunset Crater National Monument

Arizona’s Peaks and Pueblos

By John McKinney                     

One national parkland tells the story of the birth of a mountain, another preserves ancient pueblos and a mosaic of southwestern cultures. Sunset Crater National Monument and Wupatki National Monument are a couple of overlooked family-friendly wonders outside of Flagstaff that are well worth a visit.

The national parklands are connected by a scenic 36-mile loop road that offers great views of the wide-open expanses of the Arizona desert. Allow three to four hours to enjoy the drive and hike the trails.

Sunset Crater National Monument

The great Grand Canyon explorer and director of the U.S. Geological Survey John Wesley Powell was quite taken with the strange mountain’s attractive symmetry and color scheme when he visited in 1892: “The red cinders seem to be on fire…the peak seems to glow with a light of its own.” It was Powell who dubbed the volcano “Sunset Peak”.

Unfortunately, the name evolved into Sunset Crater, which has prompted generations of park visitors to look for a hole in the ground rather than a classic cinder-cone volcano.

In 1928, a movie company intended to dynamite Sunset Crater in order to simulate an explosion. This crass proposal had the effect of galvanizing scientists and the local populace into action in order to protect the crater. Sunset Crater National Monument was established in 1930.

Youngest of more than 400 volcanoes found in the San Francisco Mountains volcanic field of northern Arizona, Sunset blew its top in 1064 AD (for those who mark time by the march of western civilization, that’s about when William of Normandy was preparing to invade England). Around 1250 AD, Sunset Crater spewed the last of its cinders—the red ones that call to mind sunset colors.

Early park visitors climbed the loose wall of the crater in 3-steps-up-2-steps-back fashion. Concerned about unsightly erosion and visitor safety, rangers banned crater-climbing in the early 1970s and substituted a memorable, mile-long nature trail that loops through the lava field at the base of the crater.

(Note: if your hiking experience just won’t be complete without clambering atop a volcano, you can climb other cinder cones in the area, including nearby Lenox Crater. Ask for hiking details at the visitor center.)

Lava Flow Nature Trail (1-mile loop) delivers close-up views of fumaroles, lava bubbles, clinkers and much more. So vivid are the volcanic features, the hiker half expects to see lava ooze down the slopes or a mighty pyroclastics display. (Not to worry, geologists rank Sunset way, way down at the bottom of the list of “Volcanoes Likely to Erupt”.)

Directions: From Flagstaff, head north on US 89 for 12 miles and take the Sunset Crater Volcano-Wupatki National Monuments exit. Drive 2 miles to the Sunset Crater Visitor Center and, after viewing the excellent exhibits about volcanoes, continue another 1.5 miles east on the park road to the large parking lot for Lava Flow Nature Trail.

For more information: Sunset Crater National Monument, tel. (520)526-0502