VOF Nature Trail

Adventure Location: Valley of Fires RA, New Mexico
Teams Location:  Valley of Fires RA, New Mexico

The Nature Trail here goes out into and through the lava flow. Several lava flows have been visited in my life and this nature trail is the best one yet. It starts at an overlook across the street from a rest room. Well planned is my statement.

There are lots of information signs along the trail.  It is paved the whole way and easy walking or rolling if you are on wheels.

This sign tells of where the lava came from since it was not a volcano.  That was pretty interesting to me.

They have two aiming tubes mounted to show you where the cone that emitted the lava is located.  It is a pretty good ways over there.  This next picture was shot at full telephoto, then cropped and enlarged some. The cone is near center top of the picture.

All through the lava is “caves” that have seen use by critters but no critters were seen. This next info sign tells of lava bubbles and how they behave.

Then the Photo Team stepped left and shot this next picture of a collapsed bubble to show you one for real.  A lot of this lava looks like dried cow patties to me.

Burst Bubble

A neat sign tells of the real story about tarantulas. They are very gentle spiders that the OFM has handled many times in the past.

Some of these old trees have a lot of character.  This particular one has apparently lead a very twisted life but is still going strong.

And last on the tour is a picture of our campsite from down in the lava field.  You can see the hill from which some pictures were taken yesterday. The Castle is to the left and enlarge the pic to see it.

The altitude plus the up and down of the trail caused me to have to do a little horizontal time when my worn body made it back to the Castle.  It certainly did feel good to rest for a bit. Then it was back up and getting busy at trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.