We decided to make the most of our drive up to Hunstville this year. After our usual breakfast at McD's in Flagstaff, we continued our trek north via Sunset Crater Volcano and Wupatki National Monuments. Located just north of Flag on Hwy 89, the monuments are on a byway that allowed us to keep traveling north, without any backtracking-we didn't want to make an already painfully long trip any longer.
Davin, who had stayed up really late the night before demanding that we not stop at the volcano, but just drive to Hunstville, fell in love with the assortment of volcanic rocks in the visitors' center. They had fun making earthquakes, seeing rocks float, and watching various volcanos erupt.
With not being sure how our kids would fare with hiking, we opted for the easier 1 mile loop along Sunset Crater (which got its name from the red, orange, and yellow hues to the ash/rock crops). Yes, the trail was relatively easy, it also had a quick decent. And our children were not okay with the drop down the side. Which was kind of funny because Aidan loves the rock wall at the park, and enjoys scaling his bunkbed, so it must be uncontrolled heights that had him nervous. Along the trail we enjoyed fissures and cinder cones and a few lava flow tunnels (they were grated off for safety). All in all, they did really well. It gave us hope for cooler weather. (And Julie, only the first part was paved, the actual trail was volcanic dirt and ash).
Davin, who had stayed up really late the night before demanding that we not stop at the volcano, but just drive to Hunstville, fell in love with the assortment of volcanic rocks in the visitors' center. They had fun making earthquakes, seeing rocks float, and watching various volcanos erupt.
With not being sure how our kids would fare with hiking, we opted for the easier 1 mile loop along Sunset Crater (which got its name from the red, orange, and yellow hues to the ash/rock crops). Yes, the trail was relatively easy, it also had a quick decent. And our children were not okay with the drop down the side. Which was kind of funny because Aidan loves the rock wall at the park, and enjoys scaling his bunkbed, so it must be uncontrolled heights that had him nervous. Along the trail we enjoyed fissures and cinder cones and a few lava flow tunnels (they were grated off for safety). All in all, they did really well. It gave us hope for cooler weather. (And Julie, only the first part was paved, the actual trail was volcanic dirt and ash).
After Sunset Crater, we continued our loop over to Wupatki. Wupatki National Monument is a collection of pueblo ruins, six within 10 miles of each other. Knowing that a storm was coming in, and more importantly, that our children were fading and we had a long drive still ahead of us, we opted to only visit the Wupatki pueblo. As Eric discovered at the visitors' center, the name Wupatki comes from two words meaning "the long" and "to cut", it's in referance to some sort of cerimonial long cut that had been made at one point in their cultural history.
4 comments:
Looks like a fun side trip! I appreciate the reassurance that it constituted and actual hike and not a sidewalk stroll. :)
I love the picture of Erik and Maddie looking into the lava tunnel. The caption is handy, because my first guess was: "Ah, a tasty little sacrifice to the volcano god for a good trip." Just kidding, of course--I'm not sure Maddie has the upper body strength to toss her daddy in that tunnel.
love you!
Actually, Eric made all of the kids look into the tunnel, the boys were a bit nervous about it. It quite the contrast: the cooler air blowing out and the very warm air outside. The rocks near the mouth held that same cooler temp, which the kids though was fun.
And the paved part was only from the parking lot to the trail head/lookout point. The rest was a VERY rocky, although fairly easy trail. Great for beginners.
That picture of Eric and Maddie scared the heebee-geebees out of me! This looks like a perfect stop for a long drive!
Not to worry, I know it looks bad, but it's only a 2 foot drop below that rock.
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