Sunset Crater Volcano Ntnl Monument

To the west are “the peaks” rising 12,633 ft above sea level, the highest point in Arizona.

Once again I have visited a volcano crater. For most of my life I thought volcano’s were a rare thing on the planet, but as I am visiting them I am realizing just how common they are. They are right under our noses and we hardly notice. Just look at the satellite view of this area north of Flagstaff, AZ. It is pock-marked with dozens of ancient volcanoes just in this tiny area of the USA (more than 600 ancient volcanoes are in the San Francisco Volcanic Field), and Sunset Crater is just the one that erupted most recently… within the past 1000 years.

Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument is mostly a driving-tour park. There are a few places to pull off and hike a 1/4 or 1/2 mile along well maintained trails. You can not climb up to the top of the crater, but you can hike to the base of the crater inside the lava-flow area which is straight out of a science fiction movie. You can clearly see the ‘waves’ of now hardened lava and how it cuts a huge path through the forest area surrounding the crater. For miles around older volcanoes are covered in black cinder that erupted out of Sunset Volcano now forming ‘cinder dunes’.