Wupatki Pueblo - Wupatki National Monument

Our May 2015 visit to Wupatki National Monument continued with a ½ mile walk on the Wupatki Pueblo Trail. This trail starts at the back door of the visitor center and proceeds around the ruins of the pueblo before returning to the visitor center. While the surface is paved, numerous steps and inclines preclude wheelchair use beyond the rim of the plateau.

Wupatki was built below the plateau rim on and around a sandstone outcrop on a ridge in a wash. During the time it was used, the three-story structure was the largest building in a 50 mile radius. As it sits near the crossing of two major trade routes of the time and with a nearby spring, the resident population was a "complex society where people, goods, and ideas converged" as noted in the Wupatiki Pueblo Trail Guide. The informative guide was published in 2012 and may be purchased at the visitor center for one dollar.

Much has been speculated, but little is known of the people that built and lived at Wupatki. Archaeologists used tree-ring dating to determine that the beams used in construction were cut between 1106 and 1220. Some speculate that the ash deposits from nearby Sunset Crater Volcano sometime in the 60 years before 1100 allowed the soil to retain more moisture and provide better crop yields for a number of decades.

As rooms were added over time, the mixture of architectural details suggest influence from a number of the surrounding cultures. For instance, the reconstructed ball court is the northernmost example of a feature found more often in modern Mexico.

In the 1930s, the park service reconstructed part of the pueblo based on what were the best ideas of the day. In the 1950s, the reconstructed sections were removed. However, preservation efforts have altered the structures by installing drain holes, filling in previously excavated rooms to stabilize some of the remaining walls and even building a column to support an upper wall. The preservation effort has been a learning experience for the park service. The current goal is to leave the ruins as intact as possible to allow visitors to contemplate the past.

View of the plateau from the trail

The main building of Wupatki

A smaller building and a reconstructed circular community room

Sandstone blocks broken from the rim are evidence of the force of erosion even in a desert

The stairs mark the end of the accessible trail

The upper three-story ruins

Built around a sandstone outcrop

Another view of the upper ruins

The lower ruins

Reconstructed community room

There were no exterior doors at ground level

View from the community room

Two additional ruins on the plateau are off limits to visitors

Reconstructed ceremonial ball field

A blowhole is located near the ball field

A couple of benches on the trail

The vertical joint on the left and the closed in doorway suggest remodeling is not a recent phenomenon

Inside the one room open to the public

View from inside the pueblo

Double walls were filled with rock and dirt

The lower ruins from the return trail

The effort required to build the pueblo is hard to imagine

Wood beams are over 800 years old

Instead of having to build a structure to support three stories, they used a rock outcrop

The rooms on this extension held no artifacts

The only shade is within the walls of the pueblo

An entry fee of $5 per person (16 and over) is collected at the visitor center and is good for seven consecutive days at all three Flagstaff area National Monuments (Sunset Crater Volcano, Walnut Canyon and Wupatki). Other fee payment options include the Flagstaff Area National Monuments Annual Pass for $25, the America the Beautiful - National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands passes including the Annual Pass ($80), Senior Pass ($10 for lifetime), Access Pass (free with documented disability) and Military Annual Pass (free for active duty personnel).

The park website is http://www.nps.gov/wupa/index.htm.