Something I never knew is before being “The Land of Enchantment”, New Mexico was called “The Volcano State”. It has more dormant volcanoes than any other state in our country. In fact, there is a fault line running diagonally across the state delineating the flatter eastern portion from the more scenic western portion.
We visited El Malpais (called that by early Spanish Explorers meaning “The Bad Lands”) National Monument near Grants, NM. It was a little confusing because our GPS took us to the Administration Offices in town first. The park abuts the I-40 Interstate and can be reached by two different exits. The western exit, 81 takes you to the western portion of the park which has long hikes and is less scenic. The eastern exit 89 goes to the more scenic portions of the park where you have 360 degree views of volcanic fields and can walk on lava flows. Well, we took the wrong exit and it was getting late, so we missed the more scenic portion of the park.
We did, however get to pick out extinct volcanoes in the skyline.
Here you can see lava flows from 2-3000 years ago all over between the mesas.
Plant matter is reclaiming the territory.
The stark contrast is somewhat surprising to find and wondrous to see…
…and part of what gives western New Mexico it’s uncommon beauty.