Sunset Crater Volcano

On Friday we decided to take a drive to do some sightseeing.  We started out at Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument which is just a few miles north of Flagstaff.  This area has a number of volcano’s that are dormant.  The Sunset Crater volcano erupted over a 1000 years ago and left huge lava flows. 

  It looks like dried mud, but it is all volcanic rock.

Along the road there were a couple of places to take short hikes.  The sign for the first trail indicated it was a short hike to Lenox Crater (another volcano) with great views of the mountains (also volcano’s) in the distant.  The sign did not indicate the distance but said it was a 300 foot climb.  You could look up and see that it was a fairly steep climb but probably not that far.  We started out and found how steep the climb was and the ground was very soft as it was comprised of ground up volcanic rock and ash, like a coarse sand.  We huffed and puffed our way to the top where it was extremely windy and cold.  The distance was much more than we had anticipated and the views were nice but had we known all in advance, we may have passed.  Here are the views:

This is the path looking down when we were about a third of the way up.

View from the top.

Another view from the top.

Following our park journey we went into Flagstaff to have lunch and run some errands.  Had a great lunch at Salsa Brava (www.salsabravaflagstaff.com).  We drove the old Route 66, which is a very busy street in Flagstaff and drove through the historic downtown, which was also very busy. 

Next up is Sedona, Jerome and another day at the Grand Canyon.