El Malpais, Bandera, & El Morro....10th June

North of Milan & Grants is El Malpais National Monument, an area made up of extinct volcanos, lava tubes and caves created 10,000 years ago......our first stop is at the Rangers visitor centre, this is a one man or in this case one woman centre but as usual excellent information and knowledge....good facilities including a filtered water system to refill folks water bottles...essential to drink plenty of water at the altitudes here and the temperatures.....
We drive 2 miles back down the highway to El Calderon Area Trailhead, don the hiking shoes and take off on a 3 mile hike past various caves to a dormant volcano....

It's really fascinating to see how much the vegetation has regrown here in comparison to our visit to Iceland where the  landscape is still very barren.......our visit there was in 2010 just prior to their latest eruption.....

Some of the many colourful plants on the trail.....

The bat cave.........

A more sedate section of the trail although it is deceiving as it is an uphill gradient ......

From El Calderon we drive back up the highway 20 miles to  Bandera Volcano and Ice cave. This area is privately owned and involved another mile hike uphill over a cinder trail past collapsed lava tubes, Ponderosa and Pinon pines and Aspen to the Bandera Crater pictured here...this is very impressive and worth the hike....Bandera volcano is one of 29 in the El Malpais region...

In this region we are on the Continental Divide, this is a natural fold in the earths crust running from Alaska to South America......on this trip we will be following this north to Glacier National Park and the Canadian Border...

More colourful plants growing amongst the lava rocks.....I have not included pics of the lava tubes etc as being black it does not show very well in photos, well at my standard of photography anyway !!

Back down the trail brings you to the Ice Cave, this really is amazing as you descend from 90 F down the 70 steps it gets noticeably cooler until at the viewing platform it is 31 F.....it never gets above this temperature...
As rain and snow melt into this cave the ice floor thickens, it is still unknown why this happens as it is not deep into the cave but is thought to be a combination of existing conditions that make a natural ice box.....
In 1946 ice removal was stopped to preserve the cave..... 

The green and orange hues are lichen and moss...
The Anasazi and then early settlers utilised this and other ice caves in this region to store food...this is now the only ice cave remaining in this area...

We move on up the highway  to El Morro National Monument and our last stop for today.....
El Morro is a large sandstone promontory that has a unique feature of having a continuos pool of water at it's base making it a stopping place and camp for the Ancients and early settlers....

We walk the half mile Inscription Trail around the base of El Morro past the petroglyphs and chiselled inscriptions...over  the centuries those who travelled this trail stopped to camp at this shaded oasis and  left carved evidence of their passage, symbols, names, dates and fragments of their stories that register their cultures and history.....
Well we have had a very good day but the temps and altitude have taken their toll a tad and we pass on hiking to the top of the Mesa to see the Pueblo Ruins and the thought of a cold beer back at home is much more appealing :)
On the road again tomorrow, a longish drive but should be straightforward, east on I-40 then north on I-25 to Santa Fe....