Capulin Volcano National Monument
/The Great 2020 Pandemic Road Trip continues, but it’s taking a few detours that we hadn’t previously planned or imagined… go figure! As we watched everyone leave Trinidad Lake State Park the other morning, we still hadn’t decided exactly where we were heading next. So we stayed put in Trinidad and gave it some thought.
On our usual Sunday parent-son phone chat, Brennan suggested we should stop at Capulin Volcano National Monument, which of course we’d never heard of other than the highway sign we’d passed on our way to Trinidad. Capulin was just over the Colorado border in New Mexico about an hour southeast. Hiking in an extinct volcano? What the heck? Why not?
We could see the Capulin Volcano rise up abruptly from the flat prairie grasslands.
Rising 1,300 feet above the surrounding high prairie grasslands, Capulin, a cinder cone volcano, is fairly new in geologic time, erupting into existence about 60,000 years ago. It was designated in 1916 by President Woodrow Wilson as a U.S. National Monument to “preserve ... a striking example of recent extinct volcanoes ... which ... is of great scientific and especially geologic interest..."
We were pleased to learn that the Visitor Center was open, as was the narrow, steep Volcano Road, a drive which spirals around the volcano and ends in a parking lot on the crater rim. We checked in with the friendly rangers and headed on up to the top of the volcano. We couldn’t help but remember our close up and personal experience with the most accessible active volcano in the world… Mount Yasur in Vanuatu. We definitely prefer extinct volcanoes.
We opted to do the short, but steep Crater Vent Trail first which led us down a paved walk about a ¼ mile to the bottom of the crater. We happily descended the 105’ in elevation, but found ourselves a bit winded on the way back up. We learned from a info sign that early Spanish ranchers named the volcano ‘capulin’, (cah-poo-leen), Spanish for the chokecherry shrubs that grow here.
Checking out the info signs at the bottom of the crater, learning how a cinder cone volcano is formed.
The Crater Rim Trail was next on the itinerary and the climb, though a paved path, was considered ‘moderately strenuous’. A mile long loop, starting at 7900’, the trail climbs from the parking lot and gains another 305’ of elevation with 12% grades as it skirts the rim of the volcano. We were huffing a bit, but the 360° views at the top were worth the effort.
Views from the top were stunning. On a clear day, they claim you can see New Mexico, Colorado, Texas and Oklahoma from the top of the crater rim.
We always learn some new and interesting tidbits during our visits to national parks and monuments and Capulin didn’t disappoint us. We learned about ‘hilltopping’, a natural phenomenon where insects, in this case ladybugs, flock by the thousands in the summer months to high points for mating and laying eggs.
A loveliness of ladybugs
Another interesting fact? The fertile grazing land surrounding the volcano was used by cowboys Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving to fatten their cattle before driving them to market in Colorado. Their 1866 trail drive was the basis for Larry McMurtry’s 1986 Pulitzer prize winning ‘Lonesome Dove’, one of our favorite novels and movies.
We descended the steep trail back to Blue and headed down to the Visitor’s Center parking lot to find the trailhead for the Lava Flow Trail. This one-mile loop was pretty easy and not all that exciting until I heard a hiss and rattle and then things got a bit more exciting for a minute or two. A good sized western prairie rattlesnake was coiled in the grass on the side of the trail poised to strike. He made his presence known most vehemently. After my initial hoop, holler and jump, my heart stopped racing long enough to take a photo and continue down the trail.
A surprise on the Lava Flow Trail… for all of us.
A pleasant, shady picnic area provided a good lunch spot. We were joined by a curious spotted towhee that was definitely looking for some crumbs and a very cheeky, persistent gray squirrel who jumped on our picnic table ready to dive in and share our picnic grub. We shooed him away several times before he finally gave up and went to pester some potentially more generous picnickers.
So, where to next? Well, we think we might head to Taos, New Mexico which we haven’t visited in decades. But who knows? Be prepared for anything. You just never know where you might end up traveling with us, but we’re glad you’re with us.