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A short drive from Sedona: Wupatki and Sunset National Monuments

By Willma Gore | Sedona.biz

Flagstaff, AZ -- Jan and I had two destinations in mind for our day’s trip from Sedona—Sunset National Monument and the ruins of Wupatki National Monument--both easily accessible on a 35-mile loop northward on Highway 89 out of Flagstaff.

Arriving first at the prominent sign announcing Sunset National Monument, we turned right and in less than a mile pulled in at an accommodating, large information center where we learned, along with picking up extensive literature, that the volcanoes in this area are the most recently active on the Colorado plateau. Indeed, some of the surrounding black cinder landscape appears to have “erupted yesterday.”

For our first “park and walk” we stopped at the Bonito Flow pullout. Sunset crater lies to the east with its characteristic depression a “bowl” at the top. Visitors may no longer climb on this crater though climbers are permitted on nearby Lennox and Doney Mountain cinder cones.

To the west lie San Francisco Peaks that rise to more than 12,500 feet. They are snow-capped from the first storms of winter until spring. These are a composite volcano, meaning that several peaks erupted here between 2.8 million and 200,000 years ago. Most, including Sunset Crater, are cinder cones. These were formed when hot gasses and magma (molten rock) broke through the earth’s surface. Other activity began as lava spewed out along a six-mile opening extending southeast of the volcano. This is a fissure eruption. The exact date of the first eruption of Sunset Crater is not known but recent studies suggest that it began between 1040 and 1100 A.D. and probably lasted about 10 years. Later eruptions produced lava flows that spread from the base of the volcano.

As we walked the paved, wheel-chair accessible trail, we looked with wonder at the irregular formations of the Bonito lava flow. They appear like fudge that has cooled in peaks and cracks without being smoothed by the cook’s spoon. This is cooled magma. It formed the unusual shapes—sharp-edge ridges and pocketed mounds--as it met the cool air. Some are called “squeeze-ups” that resulted when the molten lava pushed up through an already cooled crust.

It is nearly impossible to imagine that this area was once covered by ocean with no mountains in sight. The shells of numerous sea creatures compressed into limestone and became what you can see from the trail as white streaks embedded in the basaltic lava. Similar, larger layers are visible, the Kaibab formation, exposed in the Grand Canyon and at several locations in the mountains surrounding Sedona. Additional pull-outs for the Cinder Hills Overlook and the Kana’a Lava Flow offer views of more cinder cones and more unworldly formations.

At the Painted Desert Vista we looked eastward. The clear air affords a vision of pink, rose, and lavender of the Painted Desert 100 miles distant. The Petrified Forest lies here--another worthy visit off I-40, as is Winslow Crater.

Words and pictures do not properly convey the unique landscape of Sunset Crater National Monument or the Wupatki ruins which we were soon to discover as we left Sunset. Within 15 miles we had dropped 2000 ft in elevation and arrived at Wupatki ruins—the entrance to which is through the newly-refurbished visitor center.

Wupatki ruins—a 100-room structure--appear from the first overview to have been recently occupied, they look so well-cared for—which they are--but they are centuries old. Wupatki is set apart on a rocky mound in a small valley. It was the site of an advanced culture that was enhanced with trade, resulting in a blend of architecture, technology, tools, crafts, textiles and pottery. More than 100 hundred different kinds of pottery have been found here, testifying to a healthy trade among indigenous peoples.

The pueblo is constructed of red sandstone and limestone blocks, mortared with clay. Some sections were once three stories high, roofed with cross-hatched timbers and thatched with grasses and mud. No store rooms or human habitations had ground level entrances. Ladders, their cross-pieces secured by thongs, were leaned against the structures to provide entry through the roofs. On the floors of some rooms are manos, hand-held oblong stones, and large flat stones, the metates, dished from incessant grain grinding.

This typical pueblo structure is far more common than the famous cliff dwellings which make up only a fraction of southwestern archeological sites. Only on closer inspection, walking the trails that circumvent the buildings, did we see that the rooms are roofless and some walls have been shored up by modern technologists.

One room in the Wupatki pueblo shows evidence of an innovative circulation system that deflected incoming air and made smoke exit through the roof. A spring flowed near the pueblo at one time but dried up long ago. Set apart from the pueblo on flat ground below are the remains of a circular community room and a ball court

By the late 1100s, thousands of people, ancestors of today’s Hopi and Zuni Indians, had built a large farming community here. The volcanic ash from the Sunset craters absorbed moisture and helped preserve this scarce commodity, essential for growing the main crop, corn. Gardens were placed around the main living site in pockets of soil most likely to catch and retain the sparse moisture. The rain was as unpredictable then as it is today. The residents stored water in hand-carried containers and “importing it” from distant springs and streams via a network of trails.

New exhibits have been under construction at the Wupatki visitor center since January 2005 and were celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in August 2005 in remembrance of the anniversary of the founding of the National Park Service in 1916. Current visitors to the center will learn of recent scientific findings and benefit from the new interpretive exhibits.

Near the Doney Crater cinder cone overlook a short distance above the visitor center is a natural phenomenon known as the “blowhole.” It is an opening that connects to an extensive underground series of fractures in the Kaibab limestone. It acts as a fan or vacuum according to the surface air temperature and atmospheric pressure. If the temperature outside is cool the air rushes into the blowhole. On warmer days air in the internal facture system rushes out.

Additional ruins (within Wupatki National Monument boundaries) may be visited along (or just off) the loop road. Among these is Wukoki, that can be visited on the way to Wupatki from Sunset, about two miles off the loop road. It is somewhat unusual because of its tower structure, built of Moencopi sandstone. This location also affords another view of the Painted Desert. The Lomaki, Natakihu and Citadel Pueblos are also on the loop route—a special treat for the Native American aficionado.