Wupatki Pueblo is one of the largest, housing up to 100 people at its peak around 1200 AD. Perhaps 1000 others lived in pueblos nearby.
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Wupatki was near the center of many trade routes. At its peak, it had 100 rooms, a community area and a ball court.
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Karen gives you an idea of the size. It was 3 levels.
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It was built around a rock outcropping.
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The right side is a giant rock. The square tall brick structure is a vent, probably for having indoor fires.
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Looking inside one room.
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You can see how it was built around this rock.
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The other side of the room shows another rock used as a foundation.
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The community room. This was a farming community, using water stored during sparse rains. Unusual was the lack of evidence of a roof over the area.
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A ball court, assumed since it's similar to what the Indians in Mexico built.
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Wupatki has a large "blow hole" connected to a large underground chamber that vents here. When we were there it was blowing damp air out.
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Many people have been here. Prospectors recovered many artifacts. Squatters lived here. During the 1930s, even park rangers lived in the structure.
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After that, the area was returned to its original but decayed status.
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Sunset Crater, near Wupatki. The high hill is the remains of a volcano that erupted around 1040-1100.
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Closer look at the cone. It's covered with heavy cinders. There were paths up it for many years until it was realized how much damage hikers were causing.
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Lava fields similar to ones we have seen in Hawaii and the Galapagos.
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Lava flowed twice around the base leaving this lava field, called Bonita. The mountains in the background are just north of Flagstaff.
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More of the lava field, with what seems like a smaller crater (or mine) in the upper left.
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Trees poking through the snow on the cinders.
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Another cone nearby.
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Backside of Sunset Crater. Here you can see the crater in the dome.
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And a few miles away, looking off the hills to the desert beyond.
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The ash and cinders have a texture that looks like blowing sand.
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We took the truck in case we needed 4WD.
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