Fields of Destruction

The day began with the sun flirting with the clouds above the mountain peaks. We set off to explore a volcano that exploded about a 100 years ago. Most of these mountain peaks, at one time, were active volcano's. As we arrived at the Sunset Volcano National Park the clouds had won over the sun and it started to lightly sprinkle. You could stand there and watch as the clouds drifted by and see the area's that were getting rain.

Our first stop was to climb this very steep trail that would lead us to this view of the San Fransisco Mountains. That's Humphrey's Peak in the picture above, being the tallest in the state of Arizona. It stands a little over 12,000'. While we were here taking in the scenery and posing for a picture together a lighting bolt came out of the sky and exploded, what seemed to be, at the base of the mountain we were on. That's it! Too close for me! Get back to the car as quickly as possible. We are standing on this almost bare mountain top. If you look at the slide show you will see us in the picture after we saw the huge bolt. We are trying to smile as we realized where it struck.

By the time we made it back to the car the sun had taken over the sky and was shinning brightly once again. The next stop took us to the lava fields. As we walked this trail of sharp rocks we followed the contour of the flow. Its amazing that after 100 years there still isn't much growing around us.

What remains of the peak of the mountain now is only a black bald dome of pumice. For miles around you can see the blast zone.

Getting back into the car and driving only a 1/2 hour away we came across this Indian dwelling that they believe was constructed about the time of the volcano's eruption.

This was the biggest dwelling for 50 miles around and the Indians would build their homes around here so that they were never further away than a days walk. This was the center for the inhabitants of the area. A very interesting find was a natural blow hole. Its a crack in the earth where air blows out, deep from within. You'll see in the slide show our pictures of standing on top of the hole. The sun was finally out and it was another hot day but standing on the blow hole it felt like an AC vent.

Today, Saturday, we are headed to our next destination a little further south. Sedona. Many people said that we had to stop there because it is incredible. By the looks of it on the Internet it seems like a beautiful place. We will stay there until Tuesday when we have an appointment with a body shop in Phoenix to get Road Hazard's fender repaired properly. We can't be driving around with duct tape on it.