Sunset Crater

Posted on October 8, 2007 in Photos Vacation Fall 2007

Sunset Crater is hardly active: it blew up somewhere between [[1040]] and [[1100]] AD. So we were in no danger when we explored the [[lava]] beds that spewed forth to the southeast and the southwest of it. It was our first day of cool weather and there was no sign of the rain which haunted us the next day when we went to Petrified Forest National Park.

We hiked two trails, one up a cinder cone called Lenox Crater and the other around the lava beds. The crater on Lenox Crater has been filled in: it’s more of a flat-topped butte. Big round pieces of cinder cover the slopes which made the short climb a bit tricky. I steered so that there was always a tree or a stump to catch me should I fall. The trail opened up to a fabulous view of the San Francisco Peaks to the west and miles of ponderosa and aspen forests that spilled off the cinder cone and into a wide valley.

Despite signs forbidding off-trail travel, I caught a long-haired, young Native American acting as if he could ignore both NPS protection and Hopi reverence of the area. He climbed a cinder slope just off the Lava Beds Trail, set up a camera, and then scurried off when I gave him a dirty look.

I photographed the plants above growing out of the lava flow. I have no idea what they are, but they seem to show that fire has been replaced by the slower combustion of Life.

Here’s the album at my gallery site (8 pics).

Click on more to see important notes.

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