Pictures courtesy of the Coconino National Forest -Lockett Meadow Campground.
Campground Overview:
**Lockett Meadow Access Closed to Motor Vehicles**
Lockett Meadow Campground is a primitive campground that offers a scenic view of the San Francisco Peaks and dry camping in the cool aspen trees that surround Lockett Meadow. This is a terrific campground for those who cherish a real mountain camping experience and love to hike wilderness trails. You may catch a glimpse of the natural residents, porcupine or elk or thrill to the song of a hermit thrush that sings his best here. Even black bear have been known to stroll right through groups of picnickers without as much as a glance at their lunches.
The San Francisco Peaks are actually the remains of an extinct volcano, which millions of years ago shattered and reshaped these great peaks, forming four of the highest individual peaks in Arizona and is home to the only region of tundra in Arizona. Inside the now quiet caldera a lush alpine environment has blurred evidence of that cataclysmic event.
Campsites:
Lockett Meadow Campground includes 17 single campsites. Each site has fire rings and picnic tables. A vault toilet is also nearby. No drinking water available so be prepared to bring your own.
Drive northeast of Flagstaff on US Highway 89 for 12.5 miles. Turn left on Forest Road 552, directly across from the Sunset Crater National Monument turnoff. Follow FR 552 for approximately one mile. Turn right at the Lockett Meadow sign and continue to the campground. This dirt road is closed in early spring and late fall due to snow.
Campground at a Glance
Level: |
Semi-Developed |
Season: |
May – October |
Nearby City: |
Flagstaff |
Fishing: |
None |
Campground Website: |
Lockett Meadow Campground |
Campground Map: |
Click Here |
Reservations: |
First-come, first-served basis |
Location: |
Nearby Attractions and Activities:
The Coconino National Forest around Wing Mountain Dispersed Camping includes numerous recreational opportunities, so vast, it’s difficult to list them all. Nearby landmarks include the beautiful San Francisco Peaks, Kachina Peaks and Kendrick Mountain Wildernesses, numerous trails, National and State Monuments, as well as the town of Flagstaff, Arizona.
The San Francisco Peaks have been memorizing visitors for thousands of years. In the 1500s, the Spanish Conquistadors explored the area searching for gold and came upon the peaks and named them “Sierra Sinagua” meaning Mountains Without Water. The name didn’t stick, because they left the area quickly in search of the Grand Canyon and other gold. In 1629, Franciscan Friars who were conducting missionary work with Natives of the area named the mountain “San Francisco Peak” in honor of Patron Saint Francis of Assisi. In 1898, U.S. President William McKinley established the San Francisco Mountain Forest Reserve, at the request of Gifford Pinchot, the head of the U.S. Division of Forestry. In 1908, the San Francisco Mountain Forest Reserve became a part of the new Coconino National Forest.
The San Francisco Peaks have considerable religious significance to thirteen local American Indian tribes (including the Havasupai, Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni.) In particular, the peaks form the Navajo sacred mountain of the west, called Dook’o’oosłííd. The peaks are associated with the color yellow, and they are said to contain abalone inside, to be secured to the ground with a sunbeam, and to be covered with yellow clouds and evening twilight.
The Inner Basin Trail that leads into the heart of the ancient volcano begins in beautiful Lockett Meadow. Starting at this island of emerald, which is ringed with quaking aspen stands and majestic high peaks, it leads into the mountain’s now quiet Inner Basin. The spring and summer wild flowers add a sprinkling of blue, red and yellow to the peaceful scene. While fall turns the extensive stands of aspen, which cover the steep slopes of the caldera, to solid gold, Winter avalanche tracks streak down the talus slopes exposing remnants of old lava flows which bear witness to the mountain’s turbulent heritage.
Located not far from Lockett Meadow Campground, Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument was established by President Herbert Hoover on May 26, 1930, to protect Sunset Crater and the surrounding geologic formations. It occupies 3,040 acres surrounded by Coconino National Forest.
Arizona’s Sunset Crater Volcano reshaped the nearby landscape, and now offers hiking, scenery of flora like Ponderosa Pines, and an array of wildlife. Sunset Crater Volcano was born in a series of eruptions sometime between 1040 and 1100. Powerful explosions profoundly affected the lives of local people and forever changed the landscape and ecology of the area.
People had been living here for several hundred years, at least, before the volcano erupted. Although we don’t know what they called themselves, archeologists consider them representatives of the Sinagua culture. They were farmers, living in scattered groups adjacent to their corn fields. Their homes were pithouses, dug partially into the ground. 900 years later, Sunset Crater is still the youngest volcano on the Colorado Plateau. The volcano’s red rim and the dark lava flows seem to have cooled and hardened to a jagged surface only yesterday. As plants return, so do the animals that use them for food and shelter. And so do human visitors, intrigued by this opportunity to see natures response to a volcanic eruption.
Wupatki National Monument was established by President Calvin Coolidge on December 9, 1924, to preserve Citadel and Wupatki pueblos. Monument boundaries have been adjusted several times since then, and now include additional pueblos and other archeological resources on a total of 35,422 acres.
Wupatki represents a cultural crossroads, home to numerous groups of people over thousands of years. Understanding of earlier people comes from multiple perspectives, including the traditional history of the people themselves and interpretations by archeologists of structures and artifacts that remain. You can explore both through the links on this page.
Nearby Campgrounds:
Campground full or want to see what’s around? Try one of these campgrounds located nearby
