Sunset Crater is the remains of a cinder cone volcano that erupted over 900 years ago. Every “mountain” in this area is really a volcano. This type of volcano typically erupts once and the cinders and ash pile up around the vent to form the cone. Sunset Crater was a primary vent among smaller ones, and lava did burst out of the base of the crater and flowed for many miles.

We drove to the overlook first where you can best see the top of Sunset Crater.

We then drove back to the trail parking lot to see the lava fields and do hiking trails from there.

In this environment, the lava fields are still full of jagged black lava rocks with little plant life. We saw similar looking lava fields in Craters of the Moon in Idaho, with that area being twice as old and covering much more ground. Martie and I saw lava fields (in Katla Geopark) much younger in Iceland, but that rainy environment has allowed plant life to move in quickly and the Icelandic lava fields are covered with moss and other small plants.

Our first hike was up the Lenox Crater Trail. At this elevation (7000+ ft.) we felt the 280-foot gain up the side of the crater. The trail wraps around to an overlook of Lenox Crater and the San Francisco Peaks (all volcanic), where the Snow Bowl skiing trails are visible in the distance. The ground is small pieces of black or red lava and supports a Ponderosa Pine forest, except for the blackened trees that died in a fire that swept through here three years ago. The scorched trees match the scorched earth, but from events 900 years apart.

Our second hike was the popular Lava Flow Trail that wanders by lava tubes and a spatter cone at the base of Sunset Crater. Sunset Crater itself is off limits to protect it from erosion. It would be quite a climb up and the best view of the colors is from the crater overlook on the park road or from satellite images on Google Maps.

At 900+ years old, this is Arizona’s youngest volcanic crater and was witnessed by indigenous people like the Sinagua who built the cliff dwellings in nearby Walnut Canyon. Contemporary tribes like the Hopi, Navajo and Zuni have oral histories about Sunset Crater and consider it a sacred site.

These volcanos formed here in the San Francisco Volcanic Field on a hot spot under the North American Plate that remains active and continues to move eastward. Future eruptions are expected…