Today we set off to explore the El Malpais (pronounced el-mal (rhymes with wall)-pie-EES) National Monument. El Malpais means “the badlands” in Spanish. The area was given this name by Spanish Explorers around 1540. The Southwestern American Indians have deep ties to this area. The lands here have figured in Acoma, Laguna, Zuni, and Ramah Navajo cultures for thousands of years. They still use this land as their ancestors did by gathering herbs and medicines, paying respect and renewing ties. There is evidence that the ancestors of modern Puebloans, sometimes called Anasazi, lived here. There is not much left of ancient villages within El Malpais, but there are a couple old homesteads used by pioneers in the 1930‘s.
Our first stop was at the Sandstone Bluffs. Unlike most National Parks, there are NO safety rails here - one wrong step and you end up hundreds of feet straight down. It was more scary because of the winds - it felt like they just might blow us off if we got too close to the edge! The view was spectacular - Lava fields for as far as you could see.
Our next stop was La Ventana Natural Arch. La Ventana means “the window” in Spanish. This is New Mexico’s largest readily reached natural arch. La Ventana was eroded from sandstone dating back to the age of dinosaurs!
Here we are almost under the arch. It was a real trick finding a rock that was flat enough to get this shot. I didn’t bring the tall tri-pod, just the little pocket size one. Still, it worked pretty good and we got the shot before the camera fell over!
The last stop in the park is Lava Falls. This area lies on the youngest of the lava flows in El Malpais. It was created by the McCartys Crater and was active around 3000 years ago. There is a trail here that is just a little over 1 mile long, so we decided to start on it and see if we wanted to continue or return - no commitment in the beginning.
This is an example of the piles of rock, called ROCK CAIRNS, that mark the trail. The instructions tell us to be sure to not leave one cairn until we have the next one in sight - sounds interesting? I wonder how many people get lost????
The first picture is of an easy part of the trail - the second picture is of a little harder part of the trail. Notice the line of Cairns…. It was getting very interesting at this point.
Andy is hunting for the next Cairn - sometimes they were not easy to spot. Everything was the same black rocks, sometimes in piles also. By the time we got to the harder parts of the trail we were almost half way around the loop - so we continued on.
Just to prove that we were actually there and not just posting pictures. By this time we just hoped that we could make it all the way around. Whether we continued or turned back, we had some climbing to do - so we continued on.
Our next goal ? Now we are seriously thinking we might have bit off more than we could chew. The going is actually pretty rough and we are both praying that neither of us falls on these sharp lava rocks. Remember, we are above the 7000 foot level in elevation and it is quite apparent to us because of our heavy breathing and lack of energy. At least we were smart enough to bring water with us - and as a bonus our cell phones actually have a signal up on top. We thank our lucky stars and continue on.
Finally - we can see the parking lot with our car - way in the distance next to the white van. At least we could see the end of the hike - now to get over the last bit of the lava flow which was a bit challenging to say the least. At the last interpretive marker it said “Before stepping off the lava and driving away in your vehicle, imagine what it may have been like to hike the lava flows before sturdy shoes. Imagine hiking across the lava in a pair of yucca sandals.” I can’t imagine that - it was hard enough with good shoes on!
We made it safely back to the safety of our car and headed back towards Grants. We actually enjoyed the hike and saw lots of amazing sights. It was really strange being out in the middle of a lava flow. It was also interesting to find many small trees and lots of cactus in bloom and other wild flowers. It was very beautiful and peaceful.
After all that exertion, we decided that we needed a reward for a job well done - so we stopped for Pizza and Beer on the way back to the Coach … Yum Yum!
Tomorrow is another day of exploring. Since we did so well on this hike, we might try another one tomorrow. We will see….
No comments:
Post a Comment