Our visit to the Ice Caves
Winner In The Ice Caves and Bandera Volcano Photo Contest
Last weekend week my wife left to chaperone a high school
trip out of state. This included my two eldest children, and left Zachary
and me home alone. Instead of just sitting around all day, We'll a search for a good day trip destination from Albuquerque. We ended up picking the Ice Caves, southwest of Grants New Mexico, within the El Malpais National Monument Area at an elevation of 8,000 feet.. The trip will include a short stretch of mountain curve driving on high-way 53 to test this baby out. So Saturday morning Zachary and I set off.
The trip from Albuquerque goes
through some Indian pueblos and
some wide open spaces. The
picture below is of an area I think
is very picturesque. The hills are
not rolling, but have shear faces.
Unfortunately the pictures
through the car windows and
having the foreground in the shadow of a
cloud do not do the area justice. So if you
ever come to Albuquerque for the Albu-querque
International Balloon Fiesta, the
Ice Caves will make a nice afternoon
outing.
So on to the Ice Caves. When you arrive you park in front of the old
trading post, where you can buy all sort of souvenirs. There are
postcards, Indian arts and crafts, crystals, etc. There are two trails,
the one to Bandera Volcano is to the right or northeast of the Trad-ing
Post, the other left or south-west of the Trading Post leads to the Ice Cave. Pay the park fee at the Trading Post and get a guide. I highly suggest going to the
Volcano first. In Grants we bought Subway sandwiches and left them in the Trading Post refrigerator for later.
On the hike up the Bandera Volcano, off to the west, you can see several other volcanos in the dis-tance.
On the trip up to the top
of the volcano there are
several rest stops. The
trip is about a half mile
and only 150 feet vertical
climb so those in hiking
shape should not need
them, but still the eleva-tion
of 8000 feet might get
to some. Even if you
donŐt need the rest they
make a nice place to sit
and enjoy nature.
As you can see the trail is wide, smooth (crushed
volcanic ash, I wonder where they got it), and a
gentle grade. Along the trail many items of
interest are marked with numbered logs and the
guide gives a description.
This is near the Crater Look Out Point.
This picture is facing south, the lava broke
through the north end of the volcano, then
traveled along the west side of the volcano
and then south. As the picture below shows
the lava flow left a wide canyon, known as
devil's playground.
The area around the trading post contains
several small log condos. They were used by
the Zuni Mountain Railroad workers and log-gers
I suppose. The old outhouses still stand
and I believe are functional since they seem to
be equipped with the essential roll and maga-zines.
However, conventional bathrooms are in
the trading post.
The trail to the Ice Cave
has several sink holes
where the lava tubes
collapsed. they too are
small Ice Caves. They
were used as refrigerators
to ice down the railroad
worker's and the logger's
beer kegs.
This is the view inside
one large sink hole.
This is looking down
into the Ice Cave. The
temperature never gets
above 31 degrees F, even in the
New Mexico sun. I don't
understand this since the
opening faces the south.
I wonder if global warm-ing
will effect the Ice
Cave.
The Ice Cave cavern is fairly large, even with a 28mm lens you can't get it all in. This is
actually two pictures stitched together. The green stuff in the ice is artic algae, how it ever got here in the middle of New Mexico beats me, must have been from penguins migrating north for the summer.
After visiting the Ice Cave you have to
climb back up the stairs. Along the way
green and orange moss have taken over
the old volcanic rocks.
After all the hiking a quiet lunch in the shade of the pines was nice time to relax before the trip home.
"Honest Zachary, my school bus was just like this when I was a kid."