Hiking Tales of the Old West: Sunset Crater & Lenox Crater, Arizona

In September 2005, I embarked on a cross country trip from Ohio to Grand Canyon National Park. I stopped at several National Parks and Monuments along the way. The variation in each Park was amazing. As I got closer to my destination, I spent part of the morning at Sunset Crater National Monument.

The Lava Flow trail gives visitors a nice view of Sunset Crater and several interpretive signs along the paved trail provide information about the volcano.

After you have made the hike to the top of Sunset Crater at 8029 feet, you will appreciate the paved trail. The top of both craters are nothing more than lava rock.

As the name suggests, the Lava Flow trail exhibits several formations leftover from the flow of a once active volcano.

Unlike the mountains of the East, many of the mountains in the West were formed by once active volcanoes.

Sunset Crater stands 1000 from its base, the diameter of the base is 1 mile, and the ash field coverage is approximately 800 square miles.

I had hiked some of the lava trails in New Mexico a couple days earlier and knew what it was like to walk on rocks such as these.

It is amazing what is able to live in and grow on such a terrain.

But for those more adventurous, you will want to leave the comfort of the paved trail and head for the top of the crater.

Enjoy the views as you stand in a field of red lava rock.

The crater trails are about a half mile climb and worth the minimal effort to get to the top.

Pines offer a small amount of shelter from the sun, but soon you are once again in a field of red lava rock on the top of Lenox Crater.

Lenox Crater is the smaller of the two craters at 7240 feet.

Enjoy the views and you will want to continue down the road to Wupatki National Monument. Several ruins of a once thriving Native American community will impress upon you what it was like many years ago to live in this region.