Wupatki National Park (31 March)

Friday morning our tour guide (Lenore) took us via Flagstaff, the 89 and the 35-mile loop road 395 to the Wupatki National Monument. The views on this road were amazing. The Humphreys peak (17570 ft high) dominated over and over. The first stop was at the lava field of Sunset Crater Vulcano. In a final burst of activity, around 1250, red and yellow oxidized cinders shot out of the vent and fell onto the rim. The colorful glow from these cinders reminded people of a sunset and led to the vulcano’s name. At Wupatki we visited the Museum and walked around the several ruins, one story single-family homes to a multi-level dwelling that had about 100 rooms.
Of course we tried to make a comparison between the living of these Indians and the Maya’s but didn’t real come to a conclusion. More information (through Internet?) will be needed to satisfy our findings. After a pick nick lunch we continued over the 89 and via the 64 we reached the Grand Canyon Village. Along the road there were several “view points” with views on the Grand Canyon. After having seen the Grand Canyon out of the air Paul and Tony were first disappointed (afknapper in Dutch).
But after parking the car and walking around we got a lot of other impressions and nice views. It was a pity that the weather was not like yesterday and the sky was not clear. We made a short ride with a shuttle bus, but it was toooo cold and it started raining. It was almost dark when we left the park on our way back to Williams for our last night stay.