Random Pic’s from Thursday at Sunset Crater and Wutpaki National Monuments

Sunset Crater National Monument and Wutpaki National Monument are side-by-side each other just a little North of Flagstaff, Arizona. National Monuments were established to help preserve objects that have historical, cultural and/or scientific interest, while National Parks are protected for their scenic, recreational, inspirational, or educational value.

As you can imagine there is plenty of room for overlap in these areas. The important thing is that it is all preserved.

The day was about as perfect as one can be. You will witness this first-hand when you see the photographs that I’ve selected for your viewing pleasure 🙂 But then, that’s just one of the attributes that draws folks out to our Western States. I’ll start with Sunset Crater because that’s the way we did it!

Sunset Crater is a relatively young dormant volcano, last erupting about 1000 years ago. What make this so special is that the Ancestral Puebloans were already here and the effects of the eruption are documented not only in the tracings of their movements but also in the oral histories of the present day Pueblo tribes such as the Hopi and Zuni.

Now on to Wutpaki National Monument.

Wutpaki is a pueblo site. These differ from the Cliff Dwellings that came a little later in the era that saw the Ancestral Puebloans establish a culture on the Colorado Plateau. These buildings were often multi-story and were used for living, worship, grain storage, and in some cases, defense. The materials were found nearby except for some of the wood used for floors and ceilings, These trees came from as far away as twenty miles

Looky Who’s Driving!

Well guess who decided that it was time to start learning how to drive the Behemoth? The roads were empty as you can see. Paula drove the rest of the day and even when we exited the Park. She had no intention of driving all the way into Flagstaff, but as the journey went on, there was not an opportunity to switch drivers. She ended up in downtown Flagstaff and negotiated all of the highways and main streets like a pro until we came to our RV Campground for the night. I didn’t even have to use my “Imaginary Brake”!