Sunset Crater

10/5/09

Every now and then we stumble across a hidden gem while on a road trip. This trip we stumbled across two gems in the National Park Service that we never heard about. The first is Sunset Crater, a volcano that erupted centuries ago and disrupted the lives of the native peoples who lived in the area. The story of Sunset Crater still lives on in the narratives of local Indians.

Our stay would be overnight and it would be our coldest night on the road. We had a fabulous fire to warm ourselves before going to bed. I had hoped to stay up for star trails, but the temperatures were dipping into the low twenties. The fire and my sleeping bag sounded far more comforting that a chilly night beside the tripod.

In the morning, Michael & I explored the nature trail behind the volcano. We would have liked to make the climb, but the park service closed down climbing on the cinder hill when the trails created gaping scars in the slope. Thirty years later we could still see the scars in the hill.

It's a great little place to see and highly recommended a stop.