In the afternoon, Mike wanted to take me on a driving trip up to Sunset Crater National Monument.
Sometime between the year 1040 and 1100 (I don't know why they don't know the exact year since books seem to be so exact about dates of other events long ago), a 1,000 foot high cinder cone - which is now known as Sunset Crater grew where open forests had been. Over one billion tons of ash and other matter spewed out. Volcanic ash buried about 64,000 acres of farmland and destroyed many homes and covered about 800 square miles of land. Fortunately, it seems as though people had plenty of notice and were able to easily get to safety before the eruption took place. This is what Sunset Crater looks like today.
I've seen other craters around the U.S. but what struck me about this one is how there is such little growth after all these years. There are thousands of acres that still have very thick large lava covering the ground.
This first area we saw is called the Bonito Lava Flow. What you see here is the basalt lava flow that extruded from the Sunset Crater around the year 1180. The flow surface consists of pahoehoe, slab pahoehoe, and aa. (I think someone just got drunk when they were typing...those can't really be words!) Anyway, this is what it looks like.
This is one of the large lava crevices that we could see.
Notice how bare the cone bone remains - especially on the south facing slope (right side of photo).
From this point of our drive we could see volcanoes all around us. Supposedly there were over 100 volcanic eruptions in this area throughout the years. They are all part of a 2,200 square mile landscape of lava flows, cinder cones, and other volcanic wonders known as the San Francisco Volcanic Field. If you remember the pictures I took in Jerome - you saw the San Francisco Peaks. In this picture you can also see the San Francisco Peaks - brrr, they still have snow.
In the foreground, where we are near the crater - notice the lack of growth...even after 1,000 years. You can see this in both the above and below pictures.
I found it amazing how much of the land looks just like this....it almost looks like concrete - but it's just lava and ash. It must be really thick to have no vegetation after 1,000 years. You can tell that is impressing me can't you?!
Nope, this isn't a road...just another lava field.
There was a short easy trail that went around a small area near the base of the volcano.
I waited on a log next to the parking lot while Mike walked the trail. At least the view from here was very pretty.
This tree looks like it was split from being hit by lightening. But I have no idea what really happened.
The land all around the trail was small little pieces of lava and virtually no growth. Out in the middle of nothing but a lava field was this one little flower. How strange.
From there we drove around to the other side of the volcano. The scenery was so very interesting. The red streaks you see in these two pictures are old fissures where lava had come out hundreds of years ago. The black areas are lava, ash and splatter.
If you were to look just left from the above pictures you'd see O'Leary Peak, pictured here. Interesting how red it is in color.
Scanning further left you see more off into the distance. This is what you would have seen all around had the lava and ash not covered it all.
Talk about colorful! Too bad it was a little hazy.
Now this was probably the most interesting part to me. The side of this mountain was all very black lava/ash. You can actually see all the ripples in it caused by the wind (it's windy today).
Here's what it looks like closer up. I'm wondering if the wind can cause these ripples, how could it not blow all away in a thousand years!!
As we started driving back down, we looked off in another direction and it looked like I could have taken these pictures in Washington.
Just as we were leaving the park, we saw this area and Mike and I both immediately knew that this is where the dogs would like to live. Fields full of mice for Boogie, flat forest land for Wazzu, mountains for hiking for Sparkie, and lots of space for Slugger just to sit and smell the fresh air. And a lot of flat land for me to walk around on...along with beautiful scenery for photography opportunities. The best part - Mike can enjoy all this and he doesn't have to do any yard work! Look at all the flat land for an agility field....and no neighbors so Boogie can bark to his heart's content. Only one problem - I don't think the National Park Service is going to sell it to us.
I guess we'll just have to dream.
Debbie
4/14/08
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