Around the year 1085 CE, the Sunset Crater Volcano erupted. The ground split open along a great fissure nearly 6 miles long, and lava erupted out of it to heights of 850 feet or more. (The Statue of Liberty is only 305 feet). This type of “curtain of fire” created a sheet of lava that cooled in the air and rained down as small pieces of volcanic rock called cinders. These cinders piled up around the volcano’s vent, creating the cone shaped mound that stands today. In a final burst of activity, red and yellow oxidized cinders shot out of the vent and fell onto the rim. The colorful glow from these cinders reminded people of a sunset and led to the volcano’s name.
Interestingly, in 1928 filmmakers wishing to create a landslide at Sunset Crater inadvertently created a national monument instead. Activists, fearing irreversible damage to the volcano pushed for protection of the area. In 1930, President Hoover established the monument.
On April 19, 2022 a wind driven wildfire named the Tunnel Fire ripped through Sunset Crater Volcano and the surrounding forest. The fire burned 61% of the monument and we saw the scarred landscape as we drove and hiked through the monument.
After stopping in at the visitors center we hiked the Bonito Lava Flow which is a short “trail” out and around the lava flow. On our travels we have been to a lot of lava flows and this one was different in that aspen trees dotted the rocks. Resilience! You can see some in the pictures. Next we stopped and hiked the Lava Flow Trail. there is a paved accessible loop and a dirt loop that goes down into the flow. We opted for the more rugged dirt one. This is high elevation, the monument ranges around 7000′ and this time of year we could see the snow capped San Francisco Peaks in the distance.
This wasn’t the end of our adventure at the monument, stay tuned for the ruins we visited.
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