Lava Falls

On Wed May 25 15:39:33 2005 Doug Frazier from Bethesda Maryland said:
Very interesting - and fun, if a little wierd -- worth seeing; one must get on the malpais itself to get a true sense of it, and it's an easy hike to do (and fun, again, following the big cairns across the moonscape). The rough, dull-black pahoehoe lava, cracked and fissured, dipping here and there into - old sinkholes? burst lava bubbles? The brilliant red spots of claret cup cactus blooms here and there, the sage-green bushes scattered about, the frankly hazardous abrasive quality of the porous stone (but great traction), and the Falls itself, a big circular depression into which lava flowed into and then out again through a cleft -- one feels like a bug on hot tar, just thinking about modern-day flows like from Kilauea and Etna - adds a little mental thrill to the experience. The weather was sweet, just a little cool and high hazey overcast, so we didn't suffer from the heat (May's a good time to visit).

One doesn't necessarily think about how volcanic a continent North America is, but here and there one gets a better idea. Didn't do the lava tubes though. Nice Ranger lady at the visitor's center, too. Kudos - an unexpected enjoyable Menument!

Date:	2000-09-17
Time it took us:	1:00.
Usage (people/hour):	1.00.
Cleanliness:	10.

Waypoint	Type	Description
LFTH	Trailhead	Lava Falls trailhead

Map name	Cartographer	Year	Scale	Topo map?	Online access	Notes
El Malpais Recreation Map and Guide	BLM	2008	1:100000	Y	from Amazon (purchase)	Great overview map for El Malpais area, including showing land ownership.
Geologic Map of El Malpais Lava Field and Surrounding Areas, Cibola County, NM	USGS (Charles Maxwell)	1986	1:62500	Y	No online copies.	For sale at the three visitor centers (NPS, BLM, Northern NM) around El Malpais.
Guide to Indian Country of Arizona Colorado New Mexico Utah	Automobile Club of Southern California	1998	1:0	N	from Amazon (purchase)	Good overview road map for northwest NM. No scale is given on the map. The corner coordinates are approximate.
Wildernesses of New Mexico	US Forest Service	1981	1:1000000	N	No online copies.	Base map with national forests, wilderness areas and highways.

	This hike is a cairn trail. Starting out from the trailhead, you climb a small rise. This is all of the elevation gain you will get on the hike. Once you are on top of the rise, what you see is pictured to the right. There are pits where the lava collapsed into a hole. You are walking on pahoehoe lava, which is much nicer than hiking on aa lava.
After a short distance on top of the rise, you slowly descend into a valley. You can see where the lava flowed down into this valley off on the far wall.
	Life on the lava is hard. This piñon is probably quite old, even though it is less than four feet high.
You reach the far side of the valley and then begin to follow the valley wall a short distance. Where the valley wall begins to turn right, you can see where the lava flowed over an old, burst pressure bubble in the lava, forming columns that look like dripped candle wax.
	Following the lava fall around to the right, you enter a pit into which the lava flowed. The trail ends in the center of this pit; Take some time to look around at all of the different lava formations. Do look with care, as the lava is quite sharp.
A little to the left of center (if you are standing at the entrance to the pit), is a roughly 6ft (2m) deep crack with a fern growing in it. Obviously the climate at the bottom of the crack is moister than what you are experiencing at the top.
	This "lavasicle" looks like a small stalactite.