Wupatki National Monument
Arizona
Tonight
🌗 46% moon
7 h fully dark
Hikes
Strenuous
🔴
Crowds
low
Entrance
$25
Stage 1 Fire Restrictions
Stage 1 Fire Restrictions begin May 21st. Igniting or using fires fueled by combustible materials, that create an open flame, is strictly prohibited. Smoking is only allowed within an enclosed vehicle or developed site. For details on fire restrictions, visit https://wildlandfire.az.gov/fire-restrictions
Official NPS alert →Wupatki Pueblo Partial Closure
3 rooms at Wupatki pueblo are closed due to an unstable wall. The trail is fully open.
Wupatki VC Phone Outages
The main phone line for the visitor center experiences occasional outages. Please email FLAG_Information@nps.gov if you have trouble getting through on the main number.
Nestled between the Painted Desert and ponderosa highlands of northern Arizona, Wupatki National Monument is an unlikely landscape for a thriving community. The early 1100's marked a time of cooler and wetter weather, when the ancestors of contemporary Pueblo communities created a bustling center of trade and culture. For indigenous peoples, these sites represent the footprints of their ancestors.
Activities
Entrance fees
$25.00 — Entrance - Private Vehicle
$20.00 — Entrance - Motorcycle
$15.00 — Entrance - Per Person
$15.00 — Entrance - Non-commercial Groups
$0.00 — Entrance - Education/Academic Groups
$28.00 — Commercial Entrance - Sedan
$40.00 — Commercial Entrance - Van
$100.00 — Commercial Entrance - Motor Coach
$100.00 — Commercial Entrance - Mini-bus
Hours & seasons
The Wupatki National Monument Visitor Center is open 9:00AM to 4:30PM MST March 8th- November 1st. The visitor center is closed Tuesdays through Thursdays November 2nd- march 7th and is closed for December 25th and January 1st. Trails to Wupatki, Wukoki, Citadel, Nalakihu, Box Canyon, and Lomaki Pueblos are open daily from sunrise to sunset.
Hours are reported by the park — verify before you go.
📞 928-679-2365
✉ flag_information@nps.govConditions
Quietest months (fewer crowds): Jan, Feb, Nov, Dec
Typical crowds: low
Weather now: ⛅ Partly cloudy, 96°F
☁️ 99°/68°
☁️ 100°/69°
☁️ 100°/76°
Typical monthly recreation visits · NPS avg 2023–2025 — orange months are the quietest by crowds.
Quietest months
Relative crowds by month — lighter is quieter; ringed months are the calmest by crowds.
Jan
17%
Feb
24%
Mar
67%
Apr
78%
May
65%
Jun
100%
Jul
95%
Aug
89%
Sep
94%
Oct
50%
Nov
42%
Dec
35%
Log a sky reading
Measured the sky with an SQM meter or app? Add your reading (16 = city glow … 22 = pristine). Opt in under “Travelers like you” to share it on the community leaderboard.
Things to do
🔴 Crack-In-Rock Ranger-Led Hike
🔴 Kaibab House Ranger-Led Hike · 3 mi · Each hike group has differing abilities and some may need to be slower paced than others.
🔴 East Mesa Ranger-Led Hike · 3 mi · Each hike group has differing abilities and some may need to be slower paced than others.
🔴 Antelope House Ranger-Led Hike · 3 mi
Visit Citadel and Nalakihu Pueblos · 4 mi · Both pueblos can be seen from the parking lot. Nalakihu Pueblo is 20 feet into the accessible path. The entire trail is 0.2 mi and includes a moderate hill.
Become a Junior Ranger at Wupatki · The time it takes to complete your activities will depend on the engagement levels that you choose. If you don't complete your activities while you're at the park a ranger can deputize one of the adults with you and give them your badge so you can finish your booklet later. You can also choose to mail your booklet back to the park to receive your badge.
Visit Wupatki Pueblo · 0.5 mi · The average time for visiting Wupatki Pueblo is 30 minutes if walking the entire trail. Visiting the overlook takes 5 minutes.
Visit Wukoki Pueblo · 0.2 mi · <p>This pueblo is visible from the parking lot. Average time to walk the entire trail and read the informational signs is 15 minutes. </p>
Visitor centers
Wupatki Visitor Center
Accessibility
1 audio-described place(s)
Reported by the park — verify before you go.
Parking
Citadel Pueblo · 14 accessible spacesaccessible
Lomaki Pueblo · 18 accessible spacesaccessible
Wukoki Pueblo · 13 accessible spacesaccessible
Wupatki Visitor Center · 55 accessible spacesaccessible
Not an official safety source — always defer to NPS.gov and rangers for life-safety decisions.
By the numbers
A visual read on Wupatki National Monument — its character, trails, sky, and weather.
Park fingerprint
How this park scores across the dimensions travelers care about.
Trail difficulty
Difficulty mix across this park's trails.
3-day forecast
Daily high and low temperatures (°F).
People & stories
Figures tied to Wupatki National Monument — each spans a cross-park journey.
Frank "Boss" Pinkley
— Pinkley, Boss, NPS HistorySallie Pierce Brewer Van Valkenburg Harris
— Archeologist, Archaeologist, Women In SciencePassport stamps
Mark the stamps you've collected — they show in your memory and along your routes.
🎫 Wupatki Visitor Center
Places to see
Citadel and Nalakihu Pueblos
Doney Mountain
audio
Lomaki and Box Canyon Pueblos
Wukoki Pueblo
Wupatki Pueblo & Blowhole
Audio & media
🎧
🎬
🖼
Learn more
In spring 2011, the SCPN-NAU School of Communication collaboration began with a multimedia studies course focused on documenting park resources and resource projects. The class was taught by NAU professors Laura Camden and Peter Friederici.
Each National Park Service (NPS) employee has a unique story. We can't tell them all, but sometimes there's a personal account—like that of Sallie Pierce Brewer Van Valkenburg Harris—that speaks to common experiences. Although her NPS connections ran from 1933 to 1971, many of her joys, challenges, and frustrations can still be recognized in the NPS today. Sallie's story resonates regardless of era, gender, or position. How will it speak to you?
When the climate changes enough, the vegetation communities growing in any given place will also change. Under an expanded bimodal climate zone, some plant communities in western national parks are more likely to change than others. National Park Service ecologists and partners investigated the future conditions that may force some of this change. Having this information can help park managers decide whether to resist, direct, or accept the change.
On my drive out west toward Grand Canyon this year, I had the chance to stop at a few Ancestral Puebloan sites – namely, Bandelier, Chaco Culture, and Aztec Ruins. Having worked and spent some time around these types of sites before, I felt like I was seeing and appreciating these special places on a much deeper level than even I realized was possible.
First in a series of three "In Focus" articles that share insights into the near-universal and far-reaching effects of soils on the ecology, management, and enjoyment of our national parks.
This report presents results of upland vegetation and soil monitoring of semi-arid grasslands at three parks by SCPN from 2007–2021. The purpose is to compare and contrast five grassland ecological sites and examine how they have changed during the first 15 years of monitoring.
Across the US, changes in water availability are altering which plants grow where. These changes are evident at a broad scale. But not all areas experience the same climate in the same way, even within the boundaries of a single national park. A new dataset gives park managers a valuable tool for understanding why vegetation has changed and how it might change in the future under different climate-change scenarios.
Learn about the importance of the CCC boys at Wupatki National Monument.
Ranger School
Park-grounded courses you can learn with the Ranger.
How Wupatki National Monument connects
This park's activities, topics, location, and on-the-ground places — one hop in the graph. Drag to explore; click an activity, topic, or related park to follow it.
Park
Activity
Topic
State
VisitorCenter
ParkingLot
PassportStamp
Trail
ThingToDo
Alert
Similar parks
Share activities & topics with Wupatki National Monument.
