Wukoki Pueblo Ruins – Wupatki National Monument – Flagstaff, Arizona – 06/02/2010

As you leave Sunset Crater, you descend from ancient volcanic lava fields in the San Francisco Mountain Range, into the flat, but brilliantly colored expanse of the Painted Desert of Arizona.

Here, you will find a collection of Ancient Native American Pueblo Ruins, protected by the National Park Service in the Wupatki National Monument.

In the late 1100’s, Wupatki Pueblo was one of the largest Pueblos in what we now know as the Painted Desert. Despite the area being one of the hottest and driest on the Colorado Plateau, over 100 people lived at Wupatki.

Most of our photos today are from the Wukoki Ruins, an ancient Sinaqua community of the same time period.

These Native Americans are believed to be the direct ancestors of the Hopi Indians still in the area today.