POST #21-9

Flagstaff...Cold Country....Volcanos

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Today, November 29th, we left the Lee's Ferry Campground and headed south.  We will miss this place!  The weather is clear, about 40 degrees and light wind. Our destination today is Flagstaff, AZ and the KOA Campground..not too far...123 miles...

A sped up video of most of the drive can be found HERE.  On this drive we go up from a desert type landscape to a Ponderosa Pine forest area.  Towards the end of the drive we go through a Volcanic area.  

The San Francisco Peaks are on the right in the video.  The San Francisco Peaks are a remnant of the former San Francisco Mountain.

The highest summit in the range, Humphreys Peak, is the highest point in the state of Arizona at 12,633 feet. The San Francisco Peaks are the remains of an eroded stratovolcano.  Prior to its collapse due to a lateral eruption (similar to the Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980) to the northeast (around 200,000 years ago) and subsequent glacial erosion, the San Francisco Peaks is estimated to have been around 16,000 feet.  You can visualize the original mountain by continuing the line of the west and east sides of the peaks to where the lines meet on the above photo.  It's easy to see where the mountain blew out in this graphic...

On the left side is a field of Volcanic Cinder Cones and Lava Flows.  The youngest cinder Cone in this field is the Sunset Crater Volcano...

This Cinder Cone, is estimated to be less than 1000 years old and is about 1120 feet high.  Given that Sunset Crater is such a young volcanic feature of this area and that eruptions have occurred every several thousands of years, it is likely that there will be a future eruption in the San Francisco Volcanic field. However, it is impossible to predict when and exactly where a new eruption might occur.  Again, a sped up video of most of the drive can be found HERE.

We pulled into the Flagstaff KOA about 3:30 PM.  It's a nice campground but kind of a letdown after where we just left.  We plan to stay here two nights, to do laundry, restock the pantry and use their electricity to help stay warm.  They are expecting temps in the low 20's to the mid teens so we will need it!  We will be going back the 10 miles tomorrow to better explore the Sunset Crater Volcanic area!

Until Next Time!