Lying about 33 mi. n. of Flagstaff and reached via US 89, 35,253-acre Wupatki National Monument contains more than 2,600 archeological sites, including some 1,000 structures. Thanks to increased rainfall and the water-retaining layer of ash and cinders covering the ground after the late 11th-century eruption of Sunset Crater Volcano (south of the monument), farming became productive enough that at one time the region may have been one of the more densely populated sections of northern Arizona. The original inhabitants of Wupatki are believed to have been ancestors of the Hopi Indians. Learn More...