Capulin Volcano National Monument

Our travels have taught us that trying to drive more than 4 hours in a day makes the trip more like work and less like play. Between Dalhart, TX and Mesa Verde in Colorado we located two national monuments on our route. The Capulin Volcano National Monument is located in the town of Capulin, New Mexico. Figured it would be fun to walk inside the crater of a volcano. The town had a gift shop, a few houses and an RV Park. The RV park was owned by a couple that decided to retire 5 years ago and start a new RV park business. Fabulously interesting couple

The view of the cinder cone Capulin Volcano as seen on the approach road. Notice the road cut at an angle. It is a 2 mile hill with an average grade of 6%. Hills and their grades are fascinating. 6% is fairly steep but it means you will rise in elevation 6 fee for every 100 feet of road (a bit of an estimate as the road is the hypotenuse of the triangle formed using the road and the horizontal. Also, could be bicycle worthy?

Laurie is wondering “what ahhhh kept cha’?” as we start out on a nice hike through the lava fields at the base of the volcano.

Check out some of the views of the surrounding landscape:

The photo below is of a collapsed lave tube from an eruption some 60 thousand years ago

If only houses could speak. We found this abandoned farm house on the approach road to the volcano. Memories of the old dust bowl era.

This poor little baby mockingbird tried to adopt us one morning. It still had fluffy tufts of hair on its head. After a very windy night we figured it got blown out of the nest.

When our friendly mockingbird finally flapped its wings it made it to the window of our truck. Look at the image it sees when it looks at the reflection in the window.

We took a short bike ride down one of the few dirt roads leading off into the distance. After being chased by 3 almost friendly dogs we were impressed with the lunar like views of our surroundings.

The nearby town of Folsum, NM piqued our interests regarding the local history. We figured if this sign is any indication that the place might grab our attention, then we should check it out.

We hear about how abusive the settlers were toward the buffalo herds in the area but this seems a bit absurd. Crazy pile of buffalo skulls!

Here is a story worth telling. George McJunkin was born into slavery in Texas around 1856. After the Civil War he took on many jobs in the Texas, Colorado and New Mexico area. He learned to read and write as well as speak Spanish. He became the foreman of a large ranch near Folsum. After the flood of 1908 killed 18 people in the town he went about trying to mend the ranch fences and came across the bones of an old mastadon. The bones had many pointed arrow heads among them. As he also had become an amateur archaeologist through his readings he recognized the significance of the find. It took him over 10 years to convince an archaeologist at the Denver Museum of Natural History to come and look at what he found. It was only shortly after his death that the site was excavated to find evidence that humans lived in the area more than 7000 years prior to what was believed. When learning about the early indigenous people in North America the “Folsum Point” that McJunkin found is considered the key piece of evidence showing humans lived here at least as early as 9000BC. We visited his grave at the cemetery in Folsum.

Upon leaving the museum we found this in the middle of the road. Easy enough to tell it is a rattlesnake but how did it get in the box and why was it in the middle of the road? Note the holes that appear to be bullet holes in the box. Upon further inspection, the snake was indeed dead. The flies were enjoying their meal of the day.

We took the scenic route to the town of Ratan, NM and ran into a few ranches loaded with happy cows and this 126 year old non-denominational church in the middle of nowhere. Love the hitching post outside the front door.

It was not Sunday but I can now say “I made it to church” during this long trip of ours. Not sure whether the privies outside were shot up on purpose or not. Maybe it was to provide ventilation to for the “customers”?

It was time to see if our legs were still in shape. The 2 mile ride up a 6% grade told us that we do indeed “still have it”. We were allowed to ride up even though cars could not Mon.-Thurs. as we waited until after quitting time for the construction workers and then ducked the gate at the bottom of the hill. By the way, the Rangers said that would be okay.

We timed our ride to be just before sunset. Fabulous otherworldly views from the completely empty parking area on the summit. Not quite a sunset shot, but, pretty nonetheless.

On Friday when they opened up the road for vehicular traffic we decided to pack a picnic lunch and our books to hike the rim of the volcano and have a relaxing afternoon. Boy was that light a long one! Guess it is better safe than sorry as there were no guard rails to avoid catastrophe if two vehicles met going in opposite directions.

The trail around the rim was about a mile long and was paved for our pleasure. Not sure why they paved it. Laurie, with hands on hips, is a bit impatient to show me the bench she found. We wondered what the divot in it was until we found the information placard that explained the oddity. It was a lightning strike that gauged it out! As we were spending the afternoon on one of these benches made sure to keep an eye on the clouds in the sky.

A reading room with a fabulous view. A modern e-reader shows off the reflection behind us and the old style paper book is catching the shadow from that same tree.

Not sure if the video above does justice to the vast beauty this northeast corner of New Mexico.

A strange plant indeed. When the wispy part of the plant comes detached it blows around the area looking much like one of those stick bugs we occasionally see.

Our last night in the area we were treated to a ranger led viewing of the night sky. As the park is considered to be in an international dark sky zone the visitors center puts on an hour long show with their 24 inch telescopes every Saturday night at 8:30. We saw Saturn, the Moon, some far away stars and some galaxy clusters. Above was the moon rise and sunset all at once.

We were treated to our host Mark playing the drums along with some of his favorite tunes on his porch. A really cool way to wrap up a wonderful stay in a spot we had never heard of before seeing a brown spot on our atlas.