It’s apparently a well-kept secret that three beautiful and interesting National Monuments are within about 100 miles of the Grand Canyon’s South Rim. Thanks to Tom’s diligence and the National Parks app, we figured out that these three National Monuments are all in a line, and basically on the way to the Petrified Forest National Park. We made it to Wupatki National Monument the same day as we left the Grand Canyon, and managed to see four of the five partially reconstructed dwellings of the ancient puebloan people. The dwellings are scattered throughout the area, but the park service has reconstructed four areas representing different uses of the structures when they were inhabited. We didn’t see more than three or four people at any of the sites, and all of the sites had clean restrooms and adequate garbage collection, which was a nice change after the Grand Canyon.
The largest reconstructed area is at the Visitors’ Center, so while we were there we asked about boondocking options. This National Monument and the Sunset Crater National Monument are surrounded by the Coconino National Forest, and the rangers gave us directions to get to a site outside the National Monument boundaries in the National Forest. It was beautiful! We were only about a mile off the paved road on a very well maintained gravel road, but it was completely quiet and we didn’t see another soul while we were there. And, roads and trails wind all through the National Forest, so we were able to take the dogs for a nice walk in the morning before leaving to see the last of the Wupatki structures and the other two National Monuments.
After visiting the last Wupatki site, we moved on to Sunset Crater National Monument. Many of the trails in that area are closed because a massive wildfire blew through there almost exactly a year ago, and some of the areas are not yet safe due to the potential of falling trees. The National Monument is the area surrounding the Sunset Crater, which is a dormant volcano, and the main attraction is the still clearly visible lava fields where NASA trained the moon-walking astronauts in the 1970s. After climbing an active volcano in Guatemala a few years ago, Tom and I were ready to not be super impressed, but we were pleasantly surprised to find it very interesting since the interpretive signage explained all of the different forms in the lava beds.
From Sunset Crater, it was only about a half hour’s drive to Walnut Canyon National Monument. Walnut Canyon is more dwellings of ancient peoples, this time in the cliffs of the canyon. The park service has done a great job of running a very accessible trail around an “island,” which is really the cliffs in the middle of an oxbow. The trail highlights some of the dwellings, as well as plant and animal life and geological features. This was probably our favorite of the three National Monuments, although we would have been happier to have not been there on a school day when multiple school groups with hordes of yelling children invaded the place. But, we managed to get ourselves on the trail between the groups, so it was a very enjoyable visit.
Our original plan had been to leave Walnut Canyon and get to some BLM land immediately outside the Petrified Forest National Park. However, we didn’t finish at Walnut Canyon until almost 4pm, so we modified our plans and headed for the Visitors’ Center in Winslow, Arizona.