I spent a good portion of last night trying to determine my next destination, and still haven’t decided. So instead, I am winding my way through some local monuments. First stop near Flagstaff is the Sunset Crater Volcano. Last erupting about 1,000 years ago, it blanketed the surrounding 800 square miles in ash changing the landscape and forcing people to evacuate. Large fields of lava rock and sparse vegetation give quite a contrast to other places I have seen recently. Nearly no other people here making it very peaceful. Not much to do here, and only found out after arriving you can’t hike up to the caldera. Still a really cool secluded place.
EDIT 2017-12-21: Added a new page for tracking visits to all National Monuments – see the list here!
Lat = 35.3639817 , Long = -111.5028231 -- Show at Google Maps