Flagstaff, Sunset Crater, and Wupatki Pueblos

Our plan was to spend two nights in Flagstaff at a private RV park to clean up and restock after 10 days boondocking. By the way, I’ve decided if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Henceforth, all RV décor will be color matched to Riley to hide his shedding or an abstract pattern to hide drool stains. What do you think? Lol. 

Color coordinated!

We checked into Greer’s Pine Shadow Resort on Friday, 4/12. It was nice having full hookups again, but what we really loved was that the RV park backed up to the Coconino National Forest. We could duck through the back gate and access miles of trails. It was lovely walking under the tall pines with hardly a cactus to be found. Riley quickly figured out the route to the gate and would drag us in that direction every time we took him out for walkies.  

Coconino NF trail system right out the back gate.

Rocky peaks above the trail.

Snow on the peaks!
Did I mention it was snowing when we arrived at Flagstaff?!  Luckily, Riley couldn't make it stick. :)

Albert's tassel-eared squirrel. Love the fancy hairdo. 

We found so much we wanted to do in the area that we extended our stay to five days.  Rog found a new tool to find fun things to do. In Google maps, he hit “Explore Nearby” and “Events” and up popped the Wild and Scenic Film Festival, a fundraiser for the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project. Several hours of conservation themed films (including a hilarious five-minute short called March of the Newts, you can find it online), a silent auction, and craft beer - all for a good cause. That sounded right up our alley!

A fun evening for a worthy cause.

We did walkabout in Old Town Flagstaff and spent an evening at the Lowell Observatory (We ended up with tickets from the silent auction.) The Observatory was interesting, but the weather did not cooperate – cloudy with a light drizzle – so we didn’t get to do any stargazing through the extremely cool vintage Clark telescope. Built in 1896, it was instrumental in providing the first evidence that the universe is expanding. It’s still in operation today, although it's now used exclusively for public education.

The Clark telescope is housed in the Lowell observatory. 

Flagstaff shots.

Beautiful scenery outside town too.

On Tuesday, 4/16, we visited two national monuments. The first was Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. Erupting between 1040 and 1100, Sunset crater is the youngest volcano in the Flagstaff area. Artifacts from native tribes living in the area at the time of the eruption helped to establish the date. While much of the volcanic rock is a dull black or gray, the cinders atop the 1000-foot-tall Sunset Crater are red and yellow inspiring the crater’s name. We stopped at several viewpoints and walked the Lava Flow Trail along the base of the crater. Trails up the cinder cone were causing erosion so you can no longer climb to the top.

Sunset Crater.

Lichen breaks down the volcanic rock into soil.

Lava Flow trail.

A colorful spatter cone.

Lava flow patterns in the rock.

A bright red cinder cone.

Another of the 600 volcanic cones in the area.

Wupatki National Monument is about 35 miles away and preserves several pueblo ruins. The largest was a multi-story high-rise with over 100 rooms, a community meeting area and a ball court! I did not know that playing ball was an important part of early tribal social life, over 200 ball courts have been found in Arizona alone. The inhabitants relied on farming and trade. Their culture and customs seem to blend different tribal traditions and items found were traded from tribes as far away as Mexico and possibly Central America.

Wupatki pueblo.

The builders incorporated existing boulders and outcroppings into their design.

Ball game anyone??

Rog reads from the detailed trail guide.

I’ll finish with a few shots of our handsome boy. I spent some time playing with filters, not much else I can do on the computer since we’re out of data and the wifi at the RV park was totally worthless. Sigh.

Filters are fun, what a handsome boy!

This reminds me of the old tin-type photos. 

I am excited about our next destination, if all goes according to plan we’ll be camping on the beach at Lake Powell!