NPS Website; Local Website
WHAT IS IT?A recently created, eruption occurred only about 1,000 years ago, cinder cone volcano.
BEAUTY (4/10)
The lava bed rock fields and medium-sized cinder cone volcanoes are not too striking. Trees have not yet begun to grow back on most of the seemingly scarred Sunset Crater Volcano, if the Park’s centerpiece volcano is the one we think it is. We think we matched the picture on the brochure but no signs, handout maps or exhibit panels that told us what we were looking at.
HISTORICAL INTEREST (5/10)
The volcano eruption’s effect on the local populations is dealt with only superficially. At the Visitor Center, we learned that it affected migrations, enriched the soil and led to the creation of myths and legends. The exhibits do not go any further in their explanations.
Caveats add more confusion and frustration. Things like: 1) We’re not sure where the Indians went to after they left or even why they left and 2) The soil’s enrichment might not have been the reason people settled here and 3) We know none of the Hopi legends that might have resulted from the eruption and even 4) The Hopis might not even be the people who descended from those who lived here.
Common sense told us that a major volcanic eruption had to have societal ramifications, especially since our visit coincided with the recent rumblings at Mt. St. Helens. Too bad both the museum and the Ranger on duty had no answers.
CROWDS (5/10)
At 8:30am, the Site was more crowded than we expected; about 10 other people were at the Visitor Center. The newly remodeled museum exhibits are one-person/family specific. We had to wait to play with all the new toys. We did not mind, but how poorly designed is a museum if a crowd of only 10 creates lines?
EASE OF USE/ACCESS (3/5)Sunset Crater Volcano NM is located along U.S. Route 89, just 12 miles north of Flagstaff, Arizona and Interstate 40. If you are traveling to both Wupatki NM and Sunset Crater, because of the location of the two Visitor Centers, it is best to visit Sunset Crater first, travel up the local loop road to Wupatki and then back to Flagstaff via U.S. Route 89.
CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (2/5)
The selection was not memorable.
COSTS (2/5)
Entrance is $5 per adult, 16 and under free. Your admission includes the nearby Wupatki NM. If you have a National Parks Pass, there is no charge.
RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (1/5)
The one Ranger we encountered at the Visitor Center seemed bothered that we asked him questions about the Park, so we just moved on.
TOURS/CLASSES (3/10)
Sunset Crater unveiled its new Visitor Center Museum on June 7, 2004. The exhibits are snazzy and interactive. They include a flat-screen intro to volcanoes, a Geiger Counter that you affect by jumping up and down and a video reenactment of the eruption whose visual angles you can change with the provided joystick. The Museum is high-tech, the information is there, but we learned a lot less at Sunset Crater than we did watching the outdated “how it happened” video at the Capulin Volcano NM in New Mexico.
At Sunset Crater the fun, superficial and gimmicky exhibits brought up more questions than they answered. Geologic terms were not simply defined, little was put in regional context and the fancy displays’ flash was awful distracting. We have often found that once NPS museums remodel, they cut back on Ranger staffing. Such was the sad case at Sunset Crater.
The Park Service has a misguided belief that computer menus and flat screen TV’s answer every question and make people obsolete. In fact, the opposite is true; the remodeling makes the Ranger even more vital because more questions are raised. We left the Visitor Center confused and with many questions that the one Ranger on staff was too bothered to answer.
We also fear that since the remodeling, all Ranger-led tours have been eliminated. No Ranger tours are given from Labor Day to Memorial Day despite good amounts of tourists. The 2003 Flagstaff-area National Park Sites newspaper lists a small number of tours given in the summer but the 2004 newspaper lists none. We asked about the regularity of Ranger talks at both Sunset Crater and Wupatki and did not receive a straight answer. Two maintenance workers did respond to our Ranger query with “you might be able to piggy back onto a school group tour, but heck, yesterday a high school class came through and we didn’t have one free Ranger to help them.”
FUN (3/10)Unlike fellow cinder cone volcano at the Capulin Volcano NM in New Mexico, you cannot climb or get anywhere near Sunset Crater Volcano. We did not have much fun here. We don’t care for hiking around lava beds. Climbing up and looking into the dormant volcano would have been much better. But we understand.
The Monument was actually created in 1930 because a film crew a few years prior had intended on starting an intentional landslide along its side. The outrage against Hollywood was so strong that Congress stepped in.
The Visitor Center Museum was fun but not too educational.
WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (3/10)
We always go into these little known sites hoping for hidden gems. Sunset Crater Volcano NM is not one of them.
TOTAL 31/80
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