About 1,000 years ago, something spectacular happened in the lives of local Native peoples. Perhaps they first observed a change in animal behavior. Maybe they noticed the ground warming. Then the tremors increased in number and intensity. By the time the earth cracked open, people had their belongings packed. What followed impacted life profoundly in this corner of the Southwest.
A 1,000-foot-high (305m) cinder cone, known today as Sunset Crater, grew where open parks and forests had been. Volcanic ash buried about 64,000 acres of potential farmland. Many people lost their homes and livelihoods. Stories symbolizing the significance of the eruption were told and retold. Word of the phenomenon may have spread across the continent.
Today, the area's American Indian groups consider this a sacred landscape where life was cleansed, where a connection exists to the world below and the universe above...a landscape that cautions, reminds, and teaches.
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This trail explores the unique environment created by a volcanic eruption. Your options include a short accessible loop or a longer moderate walk to the base of Sunset Crater. Guide books are in the dispenser to your right.
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