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| La Ventana Arch |
We went farther south from the Sandstone Bluff to see what
else there is to see. It was a cold and
windy day with temperatures around freezing at 9AM and a strong wind making it
even colder.
We made a brief stop at the La Ventana arch, second largest
natural arch in NM. The wind really was
blowing in this area so much that we made our way back to the car to add layers
of insulation. We stayed only a few
minutes before we went on to the Lava Falls Trail within the lava flow
area. We passed by the ‘Narrows Rim Trail’
which also goes along the top of a bluff before arriving at the Lava Falls.
The trail is marked by cairns; we basically hiked from one
cairn to the next along the one mile long loop trail. We wandered away from the trail several times
finding all kinds of different lava features, each little depression lava
formation looking different than the previous one. I think we picked the right day for this hike;
we were down in the lava flow thereby out of the wind. It was quite pleasant hiking through the
area, we took our time of course, photographing everything of interest. One has to watch where they are walking
because there are cracks in the lava all over the place with the openings
anywhere from a few inches to over 10’ in depth. You probably will not fall in these cracks
but could easily break something getting caught in one. This is a good hike for
any time but summer; the lava for the most part is very dark so it will do a
great job absorbing and holding heat.
I shot a lot of images this day but wasn’t really satisfied
with any of the overall images of the lava field. I like my close up images of life within the
lava flow and have included several in this posting.
After the trail we drove into the Cebolla Wilderness and had
lunch. This is a wide open area used for
ranching, totally different from the lava flow area we just came from.
Link to http://www.blm.gov/nm/st/en/prog/recreation/rio_puerco/el_malpais.html
to see details of the El Malpais area.
We made a brief stop at the La Ventana arch, second largest
natural arch in NM. The wind really was
blowing in this area so much that we made our way back to the car to add layers
of insulation. We stayed only a few
minutes before we went on to the Lava Falls Trail within the lava flow
area. We passed by the ‘Narrows Rim Trail’
which also goes along the top of a bluff before arriving at the Lava Falls.The trail is marked by cairns; we basically hiked from one
cairn to the next along the one mile long loop trail. We wandered away from the trail several times
finding all kinds of different lava features, each little depression lava
formation looking different than the previous one. I think we picked the right day for this hike;
we were down in the lava flow thereby out of the wind. It was quite pleasant hiking through the
area, we took our time of course, photographing everything of interest. One has to watch where they are walking
because there are cracks in the lava all over the place with the openings
anywhere from a few inches to over 10’ in depth. You probably will not fall in these cracks
but could easily break something getting caught in one. This is a good hike for
any time but summer; the lava for the most part is very dark so it will do a
great job absorbing and holding heat.I shot a lot of images this day but wasn’t really satisfied
with any of the overall images of the lava field. I like my close up images of life within the
lava flow and have included several in this posting.After the trail we drove into the Cebolla Wilderness and had
lunch. This is a wide open area used for
ranching, totally different from the lava flow area we just came from.
We have been on 10 different hikes this year, four of them
involved fishing and being along a river the other six were explorations of New
Mexico. I am usually the one looking for
the trails, I grew up a map nut and look for books or websites listing NM hiking
trails. Primarily we have been
concentrating on north-central NM, heading to the mountains mainly for the
rivers and forests to avoid the heat of summer.
The trails also have to be within a day’s drive of Albuquerque, so we
have a number of constraints. The El
Malpais Wilderness, the Ojito Wilderness (April 2013) and Tent Rocks (March 2013)
hikes are different; the lands are barren for the most part. The striking things here are how life has
adapted to these areas. There is life in
each of these areas but not to the degree of an open meadow or forest, the area
is still beautiful but in a different way.
You can see trees with long roots running across the ground looking for
water. The colors here are subdued; each
of these areas starts with a different color with many tones of that color all
around. In these areas one has to look for
the details.
The important thing is to get out and see what is around
you! I intend to do just that again in
2014. I hope to see you out on the
trails.
Thank you for stopping by,
Mark
Wow, very desolate area but very beautiful in its own way, like you said. Don't know if I could live without the trees. Do you see a lot of birds and any other wildlife out on these hikes? I mean, besides fish on those close-to-water hikes...
ReplyDeleteNot in this particular area. It was a cold windy day so all the wildlife probably stayed in that day :-)
ReplyDeleteah there, NOW your blog looks nice... :)
ReplyDelete