South Rim El Malpais National Mounment

October 23, 2006

We had parked at the South Rim Trailhead so this morning we decided to hike a bit. The rim is about a hundred feet from the road surface. We hiked about an hour out and the back. Stone carrions mark the way; Will fixed a few as we went along. Good views and vistas. Someone had left a stash of water for hikers of the Continental Divide Trail, which blends with the South Rim Trail for a distance.

It was 11AM when we got back on the road, NM route 117 heading south. And shortly we came to Lava Falls Trailhead so we hiked that mile over pahoehoe, ahah and toe, Hawaiian names for types of lava. Lava carrions marked the way. Unlike the trail through the sand where you can see the trail ahead, here on the lava the re was not mark left where feet had passed. You needed the carrions to make your way. The fishers were deep in some places; we figured them to be about 15 feet deep. There were places were the lava domes had caved in leaving craters.

We had lunch in Quemado, NM before crossing the border into Arizona. We played some Boggle and put up new pictures on the blog; how do you like ‘em? The sun has a huge rainbow hallo around it as we coast down into Arizona on a long straight stretch of US60. We drove through Springerville; looked like lots to explore. We are in drive mode so we continued. They weigh the electric lines down with cement weights. We could smell fire in town and as we got further along we knew why; a forest fire just beyond the White Mountains as they call the rolling hills here. We are at about 7000 feet elevation. Tall try grass covers as far as we could see. We stopped for the night on a side pull off looking out over a view of grass that went on to the horizon. We watched the thriller, The Watcher.