Yesterday was a day off for us. We made a trip to Flagstaff to get some technical assistance for my I-Pad. It’s amazing what pushing the right buttons in the right sequence will do. Could ‘ve, should ‘ve told me that over the phone. Oh, well the trip allowed us to visit some more national monuments.

North of Flag on the road to the Grand Canyon are two National Monuments, Wupatki and Sunset Crater, connected by an interior road that runs through the monuments and surrounding national forest. The northern-most NPS property is Wupatki National Monument. This area was dominated by many pueblos occupied from 1180 and 1250. Hopis claim the people living here at that time were their ancestors. Pueblos were made with shaped sandstone with some limestone and lava rocks and basalt mixed in. The picture above was at the visitor center and was the largest pueblo. Two things that were different than what we have been seeing at other habitation sites were a community room and a ball court. These were two open air amphitheaters that reminded us somewhat of kivas that were not underground and covered. The ball court is thought to reflect an influence brought to the area from southern AZ or Mexico.

The interior road that connected Wupatki and Sunset Crater was scenic going through pinyon-juniper country, and then climbing in elevation to and through ponderosa pine forests. To the west we would occasionally catch glimpses of the San Francisco Peaks (near Flagstaff) covered in snow. This monument is very small. We drove through it stopping only at the VC to stamp Shannon’s passport. We did see an area of lava flow in addition to the cinder cone from the latest eruption sometime between 1040 and 1100, and the last volcanic eruption on the Colorado Plateau. Chances are we will not make it back to hike the trails, but it would be beautiful to do so.

We have so much to see and so little time. Days are getting shorter and the temps are dropping. Unfortunately we still have work…ah, volunteering to do. As in our working days, work always interferes with play.

PEFO has 6 different shifts for the interpretation staff to cover both VC’s, the Painted Desert Inn (PDI), and rove the park. Volunteers work 3 of the shifts. Shannon has been primarily working 2 of the 3 shift possibilities. Both of her shifts involve working a half day in the northern VC and then the other half day at PDI either opening or closing the PDI. On Nov 3, the winter schedule kicked in, and volunteers are no longer needed at the northern VC; so, it is PDI, roving, and miscellaneous projects. Roving means driving the park, stopping at specific locations that are the more popular stops, and talking to and answering questions that visitors might have.

I have been primarily working a shift that takes me to the southern VC aka Rainbow Forest Museum (RFM). The drive to the RFM is along a 26 mile park road that takes about 45 minutes at posted speeds. I have 90 minutes to get there. So, that gives me 45 minutes of roving time. And then in the afternoon, I get to rove for another hour-plus. It is a great schedule. It gets me outside, and allows me to see more of the park. This shift is a nine and a half hour day due to the driving, but when I’m driving back up north after helping to close the RFM at 5:00, I usually am treated with the following:

Sunsets are spectacular here in northern AZ. I remember the old AZ Highways magazines always had spectacular sunsets and I wondered if the pictures were doctored. They weren’t. Spectacular sunsets seem to be the rule. In fact, the spectacular is becoming the mundane. Oh, the things we have to suffer with in this life .