Flagstaff 2021 - Day 3

Around the Peaks Loop is a very popular route to take.

Yesterday we took the right hand portion of the loop...

to Sunset Crater/Wupatki.

Today we took the left hand portion of the loop.

As we left Flagstaff, we headed North on Highway 180.

The traffic was light and skies were smokeless and blue.

However very shortly that changed and it looked like

a new fire had burnt a small area on the right side of the road,

as well as the left, and fire fighters were there mopping up.

Thankfully stopped it before it could take off.

We stopped at the Chapel of the Holy Dove so Don could

get a geocache...which he did,

while I took photos from the outside, and

 the inside out.

Then we headed for Grand Canyon Junction (a wide spot in

the road),

and saw these interesting objects.  No info about the artist...

so we turned around and headed back to Flagstaff.  

The last Flagstaff 2021 photo,  location of Red Rock trailhead,

on our way back to Flagstaff. 

Home tomorrow. 

Catch ya later...

Flagstaff 2021 - Day 2

Todays journey was two fold as we explored Sunset Crater

and the Wupatki Ruins.  This was a fascinating trip where the environments

range from desert to mountain.  Ecosystem changes were

distinct and frequent.

Our first walk was on a sometimes paved path thru the Bonito

Lava Fields. 

We could see the San Francisco Peaks many miles in the

distance from many

vantage points on our short 3/10th's of a mile hike.

Erupting sometime between 1040 and 1100 Sunset Crater

is the most recent in a six-million-year history of volcanic 

activity in the Flagstaff area.  

I felt pretty small compared to the molten lava "boulders"

that covered the landscape.

And I had to smile when I looked up and saw the silhouette of

"Lava Man" flexing his tiny muscle on the ridge above me.

The contrast in color of fallen pine needles on the lava

field created an interesting pattern don't you think?

And the old downed trees created their own majestic pattern.

The Lava Flow Trail took us past a squeeze up.

A squeeze-up is where thick lava pushed up through a crack in the 

ground and dried in a sharp fin of basalt rock. 

(Remember to click for a larger view.)

A spatter cone looks like a miniature volcano of its own 

near Sunset Crater Volcano's base. 

Sunset Crater gets it's name because of the colors that

appear around its rim as the sun sets!!!

And these words, on the back of a park visitor's van, had a

way of summing things up.  But we still had more to see today!!!

The short drive to Wupatki was well worth it.  Normally it is a

loop road, but this summer you had to return to the main highway

and travel about 14 miles to enter the park after the beautiful

entrance sign to reach the visitor center.

Archeologists coined the term Sinagua for the cultural tradition of this

area, reflecting the peoples ability to farm and live virtually

"without water".

Wupatki Pueblo ranged from single-family structures to

multi level, high-rise.  The largest dwelling in the area had 

about 100 rooms.  The environment provided materials ideal

for the construction of freestanding masonry dwellings.

But the most interesting thing was the way they incorporated

the existing rocks as part of their construction.  The builders

also used both limestone and sandstone in their dwellings.

 

As you wander around these photos you will see many of the

aforementioned construction techniques.

Don asked the park ranger how much of what we were seeing

was reconstructed.  She said about 50%.

For today's Hopi people, the villages of Wupatki remain among the

most important "footprints" of the ancestral clans.  It was on this

landscape, in the shadow of the San Francisco Peaks that a 

number of migrating clans met and merged, and new traditions and ceremonies 

resulted.  The Hopi, Zuni, and other Puebloan groups, (Acoma,

Laguna and Rio Grande) share Wapatki's history as they share a belief

in a common origin that begins with their ancestors.

We have seen many Puebloan Ruins and as we started out

this morning,  I told Don I wasn't as interested in seeing

 the ruins as I was Sunset Crater.   Well, scratch that.  These

are without a doubt one of the most interesting and amazing

ruins we've ever seen, and we've seen a lot!!!

This shows an artists rendition of what Wupatki may have

looked like during its occupancy.

In closing for today, be sure to put Sunset Crater/Wupatki on your 

"bucket list" when you're in the Flagstaff area.