What’ll We See?
Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument
This protected area features the outstanding Bonita lava flow of aa lava, and is only nine hundred years old—extremely young in geological terms. This is an excellent location to demonstrate the flow characteristics and mechanics of aa lava. This Sunset Crater area also contains a large area of accumulated pyroclastic material that was ejected from Sunset Crater cinder cone nine hundred years ago and allows us to see the recent results of a volcanic eruption.
Due to the recent volcanic activity at Sunset Crater and the presence of the Bonita lava flow (which covers twenty five percent of the site) this national monument offers an excellent opportunity to view different stages of biological succession from lichen converting rock to soil to relatively young (250 years) Ponderosa and Pinyon pine forests, which offer habitats for small and medium sized 
mammals, reptiles and birds newly arrived to the regenerating ecosystems. The surrounding area (3040 acres) of the park offers the unique ability to travel through several life zones found in Arizona in a relatively short amount of time, from the high altitude, high moisture content of the Ponderosa pine forests, through the Pinyon pine/juniper woodland, the grassland, and finally the moisture deprived cold desert/shrub zone on the edge of the painted desert.
As noted, Sunset Crater and the Bonita Lava flow are protected areas; they are both within a United States National Monument. National Parks and Monuments were created as a result of legislation inspired by the work of John Muir (founder of the Sierra Club) and Gifford Pinchot (first Chief of the U.S. Forest Service). Yet each endorsed a very different approach to wilderness protection. Muir was a preservationist, who believed that areas of nature should be preserved in their “pure” state and not developed, ranched or farmed at all. Pinchot, by contrast, was a conservationist, who sought the most efficient use of protected areas. For Pinchot, conservation was the wisest way of managing natural resources. These positions represent two very different attitudes toward the purpose of protected areas. Underlying each is a distinct ethical position on the moral value of wilderness areas.