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Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument in Arizona is a large volcanic crater and tourist attraction, formed by an eruption between 1040 and 1100 AD. The area is protected by the National Park Service and offers hiking trails, but visitors are not allowed to hike up to the crater cone.
The Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument is a national monument located in a national park in the northern region of Arizona in the United States (USA). The monument itself is a fairly large volcanic crater and the surrounding region shows the destruction of the land caused by the volcano’s eruption. It is one of many top tourist attractions in that particular region of the state, with relatively close proximity to the Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest and Painted Desert, and Meteor Crater. Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument is managed and protected by the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior.
The area around Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument was devastated by the explosive force of the volcanic eruption that formed the crater between approximately 1040 AD and 1100 AD. Although the eruption occurred about 900 years ago, the area around the crater still reflects the devastation caused by the explosion. It is estimated, based on observations of modern volcanic eruptions similar to the one that formed the crater, that a fountain of molten rock and gas was sprayed more than 800 feet (about 244 m) high during the volcano’s eruption, and the ash plume likely rose several miles (about 4 km) into the air before falling over a region of about 64,000 acres (about 25,900 hectares). It is one of hundreds of volcanoes that formed the San Francisco Peaks mountain range that runs through northern Arizona.
In 1929, a film production for a movie called Avalanche wanted to use dynamite on the crater to create a landslide for a scene in the movie. Public outcry, however, prevented the filmmakers from doing so, and in 1930 President Herbert Hoover officially designated the area a Protected National Monument. The area was originally called Sunset Crater National Monument but was changed to Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument in 1990.
Since 1930, the area has been a federally governed and protected national park and was even used in the 1960s by astronauts training for missions to the moon. The rocky terrain acted as a simulation for the moon’s surface. Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument is open to the public 364 days a year, closed December 25, morning until sunset. There is a fee per person and a hiking trail around the base of the crater, although hiking up to the crater cone itself is not permitted after extensive damage to the crater by hikers was found in the 1970s. More information on costs and features can be obtained by contacting the National Park Service.
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