May 9, 2018 - Flagstaff, AZ

The morning was very pleasant and we were eager to go out to visit few places.  I wanted to find one roadside attraction in Flagstaff, but we could not find it.  While on way out we spotted a brown sign pointing to Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument and Wupatki National Monument about 30 miles away.  It was not on our plan to visit, but since we had almost a full day to explore we decided to head that way.

First stop was to visit Sunset Crater Visitor Center to get more information, and there are exhibits.

 

Lava

Sunset Crater is the youngest in a string of volcanoes that is related to the nearby San Francisco Peaks. The scientists are not sure, but think that the eruption happened around 1064-1065 A.D..

The Painted Desert

Wupatki National Monument is between the Painted Desert and Sunset Crater.  There are 4 ancient ruins, near San Francisco Peaks.  Long time ago the ruins used to house Anasazi and Sinagua tribes.

We took a hike to visit one of the first four ruins, a short hike.  The second ruins was behind the Visitor Center, but, by the time we were there it had gotten so hot and Erwin was not feeling up to walking down to the ruins.

The doorways are small, not because the people

were small but because it is easier to cover

during bad weather and better for defense

'cause enemies will have to stoop over to enter and

they can knock you over the head with a stick!

Black-throated Sparrow

The last two ruins were about 10 miles from the Visitor Center, and we did not bother to pull over to go take a look because it started to get so hot and we were so tired.

We chilled out inside our Lil' Home for rest of the afternoon and night.  We will be leaving for Page, AZ tomorrow, so we needed to get things ready.