BETH writes - Today was exhausting, but extremely fun. I was again on pavement for most of the 47 miles I rode today because of flood warnings on the other roads. By taking the alternate route Mom and I were able to further explore more of the El Malpais National Monument. I would ride a few miles and then we would stop at various pull offs and go exploring. The first stop was a overlook on sandstone bluffs looking down on the lava flows from the various volcanos - miles and miles of lava! The sandstone was worn away in many places and held pools of water, which had a great amount of life including tadpoles, blood worms, and a interesting type of bivalve (small clam like creature). Most of the day I rode along these huge and beautiful sandstone cliffs. I even spotted a cliff that looked like a Bull Dog head - very cool! The second stop was at the La Ventanna Natural Arch - "the window" is the largest natural arch in New Mexico formed from wind and rain wearing away the rock. (see pics) Stop number three was the best. We hiked on the lava flows for over a mile looking at the 15 foot deep cracks, lava tubes, sink holes, lava flows and huge walls of lava. We definitely felt like we were walking on the moon except for the small junipers and cacti that littered the lava where their seeds could take root. We had to rush our exploration because of the lightning that was moving in all around us. I had 4 miles to where we were going to camp and those miles were adreniline filled!! The lightning was impressive, but way too close for comfort(still several miles away) and the thunder was enough to blow your socks off. I quickly reached Mom, the Jeep and our camping spot to sit safely in the car and watch a better light show than the Forth of July! WoW!!!!!
JAN writes - Today was really fun. We were driving along the El Malpais (which means Badlands in Spanish) National Monument and Wilderness. We made several stops and hiked or explored. The ranger station had interpretive information and exhibits, including binders of wildflower samples put together by a volunteer. That helped us identify several of the flowers we'd been seeing. We climbed to the top of sandstone cliffs overlooking the lava flow that filled the entire valley. We hiked to the 125 ft high natural arch - La Ventenna. That means, "The window". We also hiked over 1 mile on the lava flow. It was amazing to see how small plants and trees were spouting and growing in the lava! There were crevasses that were at least 15 feet deep in the lava. The flow went on for miles and miles and miles, so one can't even imagine how much was spewed out of the volcanoes. The thunderheads were threatening, so we stopped to camp in the (see pic) Cebolla Wilderness area, not a formal camp ground, but a primitive site area. Challenging road to get into & out of that area! We sat in the car, with it pointed at the storms and had an amazing light show for hours. You could see for miles, so we saw storms coming in the distance. Incredibly, we only got occasional sprinkles.
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