Wupatki & Sunset Crater National Monuments, AZ

This video is a quick tour of Wupatki and Sunset Crater National Monuments in Arizona.

• I frequently drive route 89 North from Flagstaff to access the East Gate to Grand Canyon South Rim, or to drive up to North Rim.

• Usually, I have a busy schedule in the Canyon, so I bypass the monuments–until this trip.

• Driving South from North Rim, I entered Wupatki National Monument which was established in 1924, made accessible by the growing use of automobiles.

• The loop road through Wupatki and Sunset Crater is paved, less traveled, and can be completed in an hour without stops. But of course, the stops are what make it interesting.

• I first stopped at Box Canyon and Lomaki Pueblos. Years ago, I started out as an anthropology major, and most un-excavated pueblos I saw looked like mounds of dirt. Most Pueblos in Parks and Monuments have been excavated and reconstructed. So I was impressed that the first two Pueblos note they have only been stabilized, but not reconstructed.

• The Pueblos were occupied about 900 years ago, when apparently a major habitation of the entire region occurred. Agriculture was the main food source, and reportedly the contemporaneous eruption of Sunset Crater Volcano made farming more productive.

• The layout of the structures looks a bit like a suburban neighborhood of today! It is a bit surprising that there was a thriving culture in what now seems an extremely isolated and desolate bit of Arizona–but at that time, population centers likely developed based upon food sources, not waterways, railways and transportation hubs as they have more recently.

• The main Wupatki Pueblo has about 100 rooms, and an estimated 1,000 people lived within a day’s walk of it. It has the Northernmost ball court of any Pueblo, and also has a “blowhole,” where underground caves breath in and out as temperatures change from day to night. That feature was not accessible on the day of my visit.

• Wupatki has been extensively reconstructed, and reflects a different conservation ethic. From its establishment in 1924 until a residence was constructed in 1940, the “custodians” of the park lived in the Pueblo!

• This is a bit shocking, as modern management sometimes even prohibits entry into kivas on the request of modern tribes who consider the former residents their ancestors. I am not educated about this issue, but it strikes me as a bit odd as modern churches and temples welcome people of all backgrounds, so why should the historic kivas restrict access? But I have no say in this matter.

• The final custodians to live in the Pueblo itself, from 1938 to 1940, took photos of their dwelling, which had running water, appliances, and resembles the modern dwelling built for them by the CCC and Park Service. That dwelling sits right next to the Mission 66 style visitors center that still operates today.

• Inexplicable, a large section of the trail was closed on the day I visited the main Pueblo, but it was still an impressive structure. Modern theories also allow for the possibility these large pueblos were more than housing, but may have primarily served a religious or cultural function. The large size of the kiva and the existence of the ball court could certainly support this theory.

• Sunset Crater National Monument is about 20 miles down the road from Wupatki. Unfortunately, the Visitors Center closed at 4:30pm sharp as we arrived, so we were not able to see the interpretive displays, but the lava sat raw and impressive on the A’a trail we walked along as the sun sank in the Western sky. Accidentally, but appropriately, we visited Sunset Crater at sunset.

• The monument loop through Sunset Crater and Wupatki was a pleasant diversion with good roads, minimal crowds and interesting sights. Although driving time was only an hour, it strikes me that half a day would be an appropriate amount of time to spend walking some of the trails and visiting the sites. To me, it was well worth the visit.