Wupatki Visitor Center — Local services in Four Corners States

A very nice Visitors Center, located just in front of the Wipatki ruins. Displays, bathrooms, and gift shop inside are open. Some very nice displays and history of the the ruins are available inside. One of the displays has some very interesting pictures and illustrations of "blowholes" and a picture of the blowhole located next to the ruins. I'd never heard of a blowhole before but they are a real geological formation. The picture shows a ranger holding his hat over the blowhole with just his hand on top holding it because the air rushing out of the hole was strong enough to hold his hat up. Unbelievable! But when I visited the hole, it was true. The air coming out could have easily held my hat up or even blown it off my head. The ruins arere huge in relationship to all the other ruins we had visited, maybe about the size of the ruins at Tuzigoot, but these incorporated some of the huge local rocks as part of the structure. The trail to the ruins is relatively short and level, well marked, and includes a few signs along the way describing some of the common local plants. This Visitors Center was one of the nicest and I interesting Centers of the 3 National Monument parks...

Self-guided tours of thousand-year-old ruins. Numbered plaques at a couple dozen points of interest tell you which excerpt to read out of a provided booklet. You'll learn a little about the history of the people who once inhabited this place, and how it came to be rediscovered, hundreds of years after it was abandoned. Wear shoes with some tread, and plan to walk around for an hour at least. Entering the forest surrounding the ruins costs a fee per carload of people, but the receipt will not only allow you to tour the ruins, but the Sunset Crater Volcano park as well, which is rich with rivers of massive lava shards, and hills covered in jet black pebbles, with pine trees growing out of it all. Beautiful drive, lots of vistas for photo opportunities. There are small museums, picnic spots, hiking trails, and gift shops as well. If you visit both ends of the park, and choose to hike all the trails, it'll be an all-day event. If you just plan to see the major sites, but rarely leave your car, plan at least...

This place is awesome. What a historic part of our country. I was amazed at the ruins that are here. The visitor center has some really cool self sustaining practices too. For example they have these buckets that collect the rain water that comes off the roof and gutters. They can then filter that and use it for whatever they desire. The visitor center has a much needed drinking fountain as well as some cool placks to describe the history of the place. There is recycling and trash collectors out front. The visitor center is right at the trail head to one of the coolest ruin sites. So you can pass on the right side of the visitor center to go down a short path that takes you to an overlook. This is where you can read more placks and learn about the ancient ruins of the people that lived her. Really cool story and it's neat to see the old little city still intact. You can go further down the trail to actually...