New Mexico Spring Shakedown - May 2024

Super Short Spring Shakedown

May 8 - 10, 2024

Remember to click any photo for a larger version.

Intending to visit the deep outback of Utah before it gets hot, I needed to check all camper systems were functioning properly. Thus a short trip was on the menu. I'd been building a home made "barn door" star tracker which needed a test, too, so a visit to a location with dark skies was in order. I remembered seeing a spot on the map called "Cosmic Campground" in southwestern New Mexico which sounded just right.

Wednesday, May 8th

Google stated that it would take only about 4 hours to reach Cosmic Campground, north of Glennwood, NM. I figured it would take my rig a little longer. Looking at the satellite map of the campground it looked pretty baren and open, so I didn't want to arrive too early in the day and have to just sit around waiting for full dark. Even leaving mid-day would get me there too early. I looked for somewhere interesting to stop along the way and decided a hike at Lava Falls in El Malpais National Monument would suit as it was along one of the routes to take. I'd been there before, but a second look would be good.

Lava Falls

I headed out Interstate 40—what a dreadful stretch between Albuquerque and Grants! I was very relieved to turn off on NM-117 and drive into El Malpais. Such a crazy place with the topsy-turvy lava flows. I've written about this place several times; look in the right-hand column for a link to those other postings.

The turn off the highway to the trailhead is well marked and I proceeded down a good dirt road only about a mile to the parking area. The wind was blowing and it was a bit cool, but not a bad afternoon for a short hike. The trail is listed as a one mile loop. 

Typical scene

"Trail" is a grand term for the route across the lava. One has to follow the cairns which are made from the same lava, so if a cairn gets knocked over it essentially disappears. About a quarter of a mile in I had no idea where I was supposed to go. No need to panic I just walked along a ridge enjoying the views. I was pleasantly surprised that some of the cacti were starting to bloom.

At first I thought this lava gravel was being added to the cracks to make the trail safer.
Later I realized this was all a natural process.

Tenacious life.

In a while I came across a couple who were on their way out. I'd apparently cut across the loop. I followed the cairns in the direction from which they came and found the far point in the loop after a little while.

An interesting dome structure.

The "end" of the loop. I guess this is part of the "falls" in Lava Falls.

I didn't take the extension of the loop as I was tired of the chilly wind, but I did last time and recommend it. I continued in this "reverse" direction around and back (only getting lost one more time. LOL) I figure I walked a figure '9', but it was all good when I got back to the truck.

Traveling

South of El Malpais is open plains and it was indeed plain. I followed 117 then left on NM-36. I passed through some hills and arrived at Quemado where I topped up the tank. It was nearing the half full/empty mark. From there I took NM-32 south though the Gallo Mountains and Apache National Forest. This is a very pretty section as the highway climbs up into the green forest with mountains on either side. There is also a dramatic canyon which you wind through on the way south. Sorry, I didn't think to stop and take photos.

At Apache Creek I turned west on NM-12, passed through the town of Reserve, then left on US-180 for about 16 miles to the turn-off to the campground. Fortunately the junction is well marked. I didn't know what to expect. The National Forest Service website for Cosmic Campground listed its "Usage" as "Light." I wondered if there would be anyone there or not.

Cosmic Campground

I got my first clue when I turned off the highway and saw two or three RV/camping trailers disperse camped just off the road. As I drove along I was delighted that this was no barren desert, but a beautiful piñon juniper forest blanketing an area of rolling hills. When I drove over the hill where I got my first glimpse of the small campground I was chagrinned to see it was packed with cars, trucks, and large camping trailers. I drove around the short loop road and did not see a single open site. Not at all what I expected. I parked by the vault toilet and walked back to where I'd seen a woman sitting in a camp chair beside her car.

I asked her if all these people were there for the dark skies. She didn't know, but said she was. We chatted for a couple of minutes. I mentioned I'd intended to camp and try out my home made star tracker, but there were no open sites. She said she'd walked along the dirt road that continued past the campground earlier in the day and that there were many nice dispersed sites along that way. I'd noticed the road when looking at the satellite map, but thought it just lead to an old corral and cattle tank. She said next time she'd not stay in the campground itself with the trailers and generators, but find a spot along that road.

I took that nice lady's advice. I passed the first few sites as they were still close to the campground. I found a beautiful, level site at the top of a knoll. There was even a small tree that might block the westerly wind. I was hoping the wind would die down by nightfall and it did.

My campsite in the late evening.

I set up my photo equipment before it got dark. I noticed I had a strong cell signal so called my step-mom to check in while waiting for it to get dark outside.

Barn Door Tracker on my tripod. The camera attaches to the ball-head on top,
but it's not there now as I'm using it to take this photo.

It's hard not to have an appreciation of the night sky when camping in the outback as often as I have. I do confess, though I enjoy the beauty of the stars and the Milky Way, I never learned more than a few of the most popular constellations. Oh, I could often spot Venus, Mars or Jupiter, but that's about it.

I was able to calibrate the alignment of the tracker before the trip, but the mechanical parts were not working well enough to take clean, sharp images. Still I was enjoying the excuse to be at this lovely location. I went though the motions of taking sequences of stars and looked up at the sky trying to learn the names of the brighter stars. I'd brought my spotting scope to look at planets after my photo session, but discovered none were visible this night. Oh, well.

The Little Dipper—"It's full of stars." See paragraph below for details.

This is an image from the astrophotography processing software I'm trying to learn. There is a technique of "stretching" which is supposed to make image from your camera sensor look more like your eye sees the sky. I have not mastered this technique so my photo is too "flat", meaning the stars are all a similar brightness. Consequently, it would be impossible for you, the viewer, to determine the stars in Ursa Minor from the photo. So, I added a dim outline during post-processing as an aid.

Thursday, May 9th

Cosmic Campground (continued)

It was a beautiful, sunny morning so I sat out in my chair enjoying the view with my coffee. An older gentleman (who, honestly, might be younger than I am) came walking briskly up the road. I wished him a good morning and he stopped to chat. He was staying in a trailer in campground—no interest in the dark sky, just enjoying a free campsite in lovely New Mexico. He'd been there a few days and mentioned there were a few nice trails to hike in the area.

Morning view looking back toward Cosmic Campground, where you can see the white trailers.
Most of Whiterocks Mountain is in NM, but the back part is in Arizona.

I thought I'd walk up the road, myself, a little later in the morning, but in the meantime strolled around my site and found lots of blooming wildflowers. I found more flowers when I did hike up the road along with nice views.

The road past my campsite winds around the hills and up to a ridge.

As they say "LichenSubscribe."

Tufted Evening Primrose

Some sort of daisy. I wasn't able to narrow it down.

You can see this Phacelia plant all over the dry areas of NM.

Common dandelions are pretty when not in your lawn.

I wasn't aware of seeing Golden Desert-Trumpet before. It was all around the area.

Spreading Fleabane or Purple Aster, if you prefer.

Beautiful bouquet!

Desert Dandelion doesn't look much like ordinary dandelion, IMHO.

More of the flashy Golden Desert-Trumpets

And another beautiful roadside bouquet!

I enjoyed a lazy afternoon. When I was planning the trip and thought this was going to be a barren area, I had tentatively planned to revisit The Catwalk near Glenwood, then find a new campsite at another location. This area is so nice I decided to stay here another night

Where I spent much of my day.

I set up my camera and star tracker before it got dark. I took more star sequences pointing at different parts of the sky. As I had the night before I also took sequences of calibration photos, but I won't get into the technicalities here. I also knew this was more an exercise of learning the procedures and the processes without expecting much in the way of results (which was indeed the case once I reviewed the photos at home.)

As it was getting dark I photographed this "toenail" moon.

Friday, May 10th

Cosmic Campground (continued)

Started the day with a reprise of the previous day: enjoying coffee and the view from my camp chair; walking up the road and photographing the wildflowers. This had been a wonderful location to camp and enjoy the lovely countryside. I feel comfortable in recommending this area. There are a number of very nice dispersed campsites along the road both before and after the official campground.

The road makes for a dandy hiking trail.

Yellow Evening Primrose

New Mexico Thistle

It was then time to break camp and head back home. The shakedown had been a success and pretty much all systems were fully functional. The only issue was that the camper batteries no longer seem to hold as much charge as they have aged. Regular readers will know I obsess over this aspect which has become more critical since I've had to use a CPAP machine overnight the last several years. (Spoiler: when I got back to town I purchased a third AGM battery to place in parallel with the other two. This should give me a comfortable margin for cloudy days or for fall camping when the days are shorter.)

Traveling

I returned home initially following the route I drove coming down, but rather than face I-40 I stayed on US-60 until Socorro. I refilled the tank there and headed up the freeway for home.

Spring Shakedown 2015 - Part 1

Shakedown Cruise Introduction

I was late getting the camper on the truck this year due to all sorts of issues of no interest to you, and then a bug knocked me down for a couple of weeks. So I was late taking my shakedown. The plan was to start the camping season with a trip of only several days to verify the truck and camper are functional, and that I have successfully organized the excessive amount of stuff I bring along. So, I didn't want to travel too far, and if I explored an area new to me, so much the better.

I thought I might explore the northwestern part of the Gila and the adjacent area in far eastern Arizona. I did only the most general and vague planning with the idea of stopping at the various district ranger stations as I went along - a benefit of travel during the week when they're open. In doing my web research I came across mention of the wildfire that devastated much of the mountains in the section of Arizona I'd been thinking about. I thought, then, that I'd just stay in New Mexico. Spoilers: during the first days of my trip several knowledgable people strongly encouraged me to go to AZ as there were many beautiful areas only lightly touched by the fire, or skipped altogether. So that's what I did.

Important Note: I am organizing this trip report into separate sections to both make it easier to read and to organize the geographical areas for your future trip planning.

• This post, Part I comprises part of Wednesday and part of Saturday covering El Malpais National Monument. This breaks the timeline, but puts all of El Malpais in one section.
• Part II covers the rest of Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday morning in the Apache and Gila National Forests.
• Part III covers El Morro National Monument from Saturday evening through Sunday afternoon.
• Part IV is a photo gallery of the inscriptions of El Morro National Monument. I separated this out as they will be of only limited interest to those interested in a historical perspective.

Overview Map of Spring Shakedown

Remember, you can click on this graphic, or any photo posted to the blog, to view larger versions.

Note: travel direction and campsites indicated by little truck/camper icons. The inset map is for a wider perspective.

---

I. El Malpais National Monument

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

I headed out west I-40 from Albuquerque and took Exit 89 south on HWY 117, just before Grants, into El Malpais [pronounced: el-mal pie-EES; translated: bad country, i.e., badlands].  I'd been down this way only once, several years ago, and wanted to see this interesting area again. Plus it looked like it would be an good way to get to the west-central mountains I wanted to explore.

Sandstone Bluffs Overlook

Sandstone Bluffs looking northwest

I stopped at the Sandstone Bluffs Overlook and it was just as spectacular as I'd remembered. One drives a mile and a half west off the highway on a dirt road to the edge of a great sandstone cliff. From the outcropping one looks west and north across the badlands covered in lava.

Mt. Taylor is above the bluffs on the horizon; the black areas below are patches of bare lava

To the north is Mt. Taylor, itself an ancient volcano. It is not responsible for the lava below, however, as the mountain erupted 135 million years ago, but the lava in El Malpais is only a few thousands of years old. It comes from a string of newer volcanoes on the west side of the monument.

Looking south from the overlook toward The Narrows

I skipped the La Ventana arch structure this time, but here is a photo from my trip in 2008

La Ventana Natural Arch - 2008

The highway then passes though an area called The Narrows - this is a strip of land between the bluffs on the east and the edge of the lave flow on the west.

Last time I stopped at the south end of The Narrows and hiked the Ridge Trail north from the picnic area. I took some cool photos of "the narrows,"  but I skipped that this trip, too, in interests of time. Here are two photos I took in 2008 from the trail, looking westerly over the lava field. The gap of The Narrows proper is at the foot of the bluff and cannot be seen in the photo.

View from the Narrows Trail, late afternoon - 2008.

View from the Narrows Trail looking west - 2008.

Lava Falls

I did stop to take the Lava Falls hike. It is not very strenuous, but very interesting. I highly recommend this hike of less than 2 miles, as long as you have good hiking boots. One follows the "rock" cairns through all sorts of lava flows with cracks and sink holes, hills, etc. I was amazed that the lava rocks almost sound like glass plates when you walk over shifting pieces. The lava here is still in smooth sheets, for the most part, though there are extremely deep cracks in those surfaces. I seem to recall that the lava in the northern areas of the monument is much rougher and rugged.

Here is a small gallery from my hike:

Start of the trail, next to the parking area

Information about the trail as shown on the sign, above

The trail is marked by these lava rock cairns

The trail crosses many deep cracks in the lava surface, from 6 inches to a foot
or more wide. Some are so deep the bottom cannot be seen.

McCarty's Crater - no, not the depression in the foreground (as I initially thought.) It is the cinder cone
just barely visible as a tiny hill in the exact center of the horizon (you may need to view the larger photo to see it.)
Most of the lava on this side of the park, stretching all the way to I-40, came from this one volcano.

Note the "ripples" along the hillside - I'm thinking that this is part of the "falls."

The other side of the hill in the photo just above and more "falls".

At the turn-around point of the trail, a small sentinel atop the final cairn. Note the blue on his throat & belly.

I had to look straight down to see this cactus that was blooming within a wide crack in the lava.

A black swallowtail butterfly feasting on the cactus flowers and having a tough time in windy conditions.

Back on the highway, I continued south. Within a few miles I spied a turn-off to a little dirt road called "Chain of Craters" that looked interesting, perhaps I will explore it on a later trip, I thought.

Note: the trip timeline continues in Part II. I chronicle my return to El Malpais on Saturday afternoon below.

---

Saturday, late afternoon, May 23rd

Being retired, I didn't feel the need to stay out for the entire holiday weekend, though I thought one more day camping and exploring would still get me home without dealing with the holiday traffic, but where to go? I then remembered that primitive road in El Malpais National Monument, the Chain of Craters Backcountry Byway. Hmm, I could drive up that road which terminates on State Highway 53 not far from El Morro National Monument. I knew El Morro had a very nice little campground, then the next morning I could photograph the inscriptions before heading home. Cool, I had a plan.

Chain of Craters Backcountry Byway

I had no information on the condition of the Backcountry Byway, as I hadn't stopped at the visitor center when I drove by there on my first day. I did have a brochure from my earlier trip and it included a map that showed the road. (I tend to save brochures, file them at home by state, then bring those I might use when I take a trip. Worked out this time!) I pulled off the highway and onto the road. I stopped to look at the information kiosk, which didn't include more info than I already had with my brochure. I also took note of a large, yellow caution sign placed by the county warning folks that the road was impassible when wet and although it may not look bad at the start it got much worse farther in. The road seemed dry as dust now, so I didn't have that worry. (I learned later that just a few days earlier it would have been too muddy to navigate.)

A couple of miles in there is a fork in the road. The right fork goes north into the "Hole in the Wall" area.
The left fork, marked with the sign above is County Road 42, Chain of Craters.
Along the horizon is the actual Chain of Craters for which the byway is named.

The first part of the road heads west across a native grass prairie with the area of lava flows Well to the right. There were areas where the soil was obviously of the composition to turn into deep mud when wet as evidenced by the ruts (and the detours others had made around those spots.) The road would be a bitch when wet, for sure.

There were hundreds of small birds along the road in the open, grassland stretch. They would be sitting in the road, presumably as the wind deposited seeds there for them to find. As I'd drive close to them, they would take flight, but follow the road, settling down ahead where I'd come upon them again and again. Occasionally a few would settle to the side of the road and I'd attempt to photograph them. I figured they must be sparrows or buntings.

One of the many Horned Larks on the road in the grasslands area of El Malpais National Conservation Area.

Once I finally got one in my telephoto sights, it turns out they were Horned Larks. Wow! This is a common enough species in this type of habitat, but I've been unable to ever get a photograph before. I happily snapped many exposures.

There were also areas where the road cut across the ancient lava flows. These zones were extremely bumpy and required one to drive very slowly.

One of the many places where the road crosses a narrow lava flow.

For most of the road's length, the area on the NE side is designated wilderness administered by the NPS; on the other side of the road is national conservation area administered by the BLM.

About ten miles in there was a trailhead. Turns out this is where the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail leaves the road to go cross country along the west side of the volcanic hills directly upon the continental divide. Interestingly enough, and I wish I'd taken photos, folks had left gallon jugs of water there for hikers - some jugs were marked for specific people with a request to leave the water for them; others were marked as available for anyone's use with a request to "carry the empties with you."

Looking easterly from the side of the road.

The road leads toward the line of hills running north-south. These are the eight major volcanoes, of the 30 some cinder cones, for which the road is named and from which much of the lava on the west side of El Malpais originated. The term "crater" being used for the volcanic cones themselves. There are side roads leading around these primarily access for the cattle ranchers, I guess, but as this area is under BLM administration, dispersed camping is likely allowed (check with the BLM visitor center first.)

These ruts are shallow compared to most. Note the cinder cones in the background.

Once near those hills, the road turns north. Just about the point where I figured I was indeed in the middle of nowhere there was a ranch house with a pickup truck just arriving. Ha! I bet these are cattle ranchers. The lands would seem to lend themselves to ranching as the grasses looked very healthy covering the ground between the widely dispersed piñon and juniper.

Looking again toward the east. I took no photos looking west due to the low angle of the sun.

The road grinds along this stretch, then about 4 or 5 miles before the end are side roads that lead to the Big Tubes area. There are reportedly trails to lava tubes and caves - high clearance vehicles recommended. I'll have to come back and explore this area later. The road eventually re-enters the monument proper and then within a few more miles terminates at state highway 53.

Just inside the monument boundary the road clips the main lava field.
The lava is not two different colors, rather the dark areas are shaded by trees behind the camera.

At SR-53 I drove west to El Morro National Park. I will cover this in Parts III & IV. However...

I thought I'd add a couple of additional photos of my trip to El Malpais in 2008 so you could get a glimpse of the Junction Cave a short drive south of SR-53 just east of the NPS Visitor Center.

First sighting of the Junction Cave - 2008.

Looking down into the mouth of the Junction Cave - 2008.

OK, now you can read the next part of my recent trip in Part 2.