HIKE OF THE MONTH

Climb to Strawberry Crater Navigates a Volcano's Fiery Past

PEACEFUL STRAWBERRY CRATER, located in the wilderness just north of Flagstaff in the San Francisco Volcanic Field, doesn't let on right away about its tumultuous past. Serene and stark, the crater and its terrain lie dark and silent. Only the telltale crunch of cinders under foot gives any hint of the devastation from its volcanic blast.

The San Francisco Volcanic Field harbors more than 600 volcanoes. Geologists have debated its origin, but popular theory says the field lies over a hot spot below the Earth's crust where a stationary chamber roils with a constant supply of magma, or molten rock.

Volcanoes help cool the Earth by creating an escape hatch for releasing thermal energy through eruptions. When pressure builds to the point that magma must escape, the magma erupts through the Earth's surface in the form of a volcano.

Volcano expert Wendell Duffield says the San Francisco Volcanic Field will erupt again, but probably not in our lifetime. For now, the area's volcanic assemblage remains peaceful.

Weathered juniper limbs strewn across the black cinder landscape set a moody scene for this mile-and-a-half-loop hike. The Forest Service has lined the route between the parking area and loop junction loosely with the tree limbs to keep hikers on the path. The right fork at the junction heads directly to Strawberry Crater and starts a comfortable climb across the cinder cone's south face. Midway across, the trail passes by the tail end of the lava flow that streamed from the cone in Medieval times. The wall of rock, long and brittle, has the look of a coral reef. If hikers examine the ruddy lava, they can see scrape marks formed as it oozed through cracks in the cooler surface. They also may notice how the volcano's boiling rock cooled into solid bubbles.

After a couple of switchbacks up to a saddle, the path parts from the lava flow and focuses on other examples of volcanism in the San Francisco Lava Field. On the descent down the east face, a pretty panorama shows how the northern edge of the lava field's cinder-coned landscape gets an abrupt end when it meets the terra cotta-colored Painted Desert.

A short zigzag brings hikers to the base of Strawberry Crater where the trail levels off, contours around the cone and looks upon more volcanic vistas to the north. When Humphreys Peak, located in the center of the lava field, comes into view, the trail drops back onto the floor of cinders to close the loop and head back to the trailhead.

By trail's end, hikers will have experienced several different aspects of the San Francisco Lava Field. They should enjoy the field's present aesthetics while they can. The scene may change in a few hundred years.