On the road to the east, VivaLaVida made some detours, the first close to Flagstaff to discover scoria cones. They appeared very recently, about in year 1080.
 
 
1. Mount San Fransisco in a freezing morning, a snowy volcano close to Flagstaff.
 

 
 
2. Cinder cones around Sunset Crater…
 

 
 
3. The vegetation is sparse and scattered.
 

 
 
4. First collons… 😉
 

 
 
5. Riding the volcano… 😉
 

 
 
6. Some areas are rich in ferrous minerals.
 

 
 
7. A lava bubble (hornito) whose roof collapsed.
 

 
 
8. Diagonals…
 

 
 
I then went to explore various ruins of Wupatki National Monument, at the limit of the Painted Desert. Several pueblos are grouped within a radius of ten miles.
 
9. Arrival in Pueblo Wukoki looking like a castle on a cliff.
 

 
 
10. Yet this was the home of two or three families.
 

 
 
11. These ruins were built by the Indians who left the Sunset Crater region, about 25 miles away and were inhabited from approx. 1080 to 1200.
 

 
 
12. Stones to grind seeds.
 

 
 
13. Another very impressive pueblo: Wupatki. The circular part of the foreground was a place of council and ceremonies.
 

 
 
14. Here is a Ballcourt, a kind of arena in which games and trainings were organized. Ballcourts are frequent in southern Arizona and New Mexico but it is the only on known in Northern Arizona; thus assumes that Hoppi Indians who built these pueblos had contact with Southern tribes…
 

 
 
15. An overview of Wupatki Pueblo who had a hundred various rooms.
 

 
 
16. A pothole in the sandstone, a kinf of bowl eroded by water…
 

 
 
17. Other destruction the Lomaki Pueblo. The canyon on whose banks it was built is not due to erosion; it’s an earth crack created by the seismic activity.
 

 
 
18. Cinder cones dot the landscape; There are nearly 600 registered in the area.
 

 
 
19. Here is a crater but it is a very different origin: it was created by the impact of a meteorite estimated at 140 feet in diameter 50,000 years ago! It hit the desert to the incredible speed of 11 miles/second, creating a shockwave of an equivalent power than a 20-megaton nuclear bomb. The crater is about one mile in diameter and 500 feet deep.
 

 
 
20. In the distance, Mount San Francisco rises above the plain…
 

 
 
21. I got to a nice oasis at dusk…
 

 
 
22. Restful tranquility…
 

 
 
Other discoveries to follow soon. 😉