From Silver City we headed north to Grants, of course finding some interesting sights along the way.
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| Such unusual vehicles! |
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| The Cosmic Campground (stellar night sky viewing) |
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| Grants welcome arch |
On the way to Grants, we added #36 to our list of 70. A stop we had not planned but was highly recommended by folks in Silver City - and it was even on the New Mexico roadmap - how could we not stop?!
70/70 Quest #36: La Ventana Natural Arch
La Ventana, a stunning formation
in Jurassic Zuni Sandstone, is New Mexico’s second largest natural arch and is
located within the El Malpais (“the badlands”) National Conservation
Area.
After a night at a Grants campground we set off for the "land of fire and ice".
70/70 Quest #37: Bandera Crater and Ice Cave
The crater and cave are located on a private
ranch which, fortunately, has made these geological wonders accessible to the public.
Bandera erupted roughly 10,000 years ago
spewing out a 23-mile river of molten lava. The cinder cone spans 1400 feet
wide at the rim, reaches 800 feet deep, and is located 8,309 feet above sea
level along the Continental Divide. Two trails allow visitors to explore the
spatter cone, three types of lava (A’a, Pahoehoe, and clinker), surface tubes,
and ancient twisted trees. At one point along the trail, hikers along the lava
trail are actually standing on top of the ceiling of the Ice Cave.
The Ice Cave is reached via a very long very narrow staircase down to a
cave that never gets above 31 degrees Fahrenheit. The thickness of the ice is dependent
upon rain and snow melt volume but hovers right around 20 feet thick. The
deepest, oldest ice dates back 3400 years.
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| Cinder cone & trees. How does that work?! |
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| An uphill trail to the cinder cone |
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| The second trail - a little more rugged. I took it & met Kendall & Taz at the bottom - lots of sights along the way! |
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| Lava tube |
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| A hearty delicate plant |
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| One of many exquisite twisty trees |
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| Going down down down |
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| Looking up up up |
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| Ice - and has been ice continuously for thousands of years. Remarkable. We are lucky to have visited this land of Fire & Ice |
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