On a random Wednesday we found ourselves asking, ‘What is there to do in Gallup, NM?’ If that place sounds familiar, it’s because it’s in that Route 66 song:
“Now you go through saint looey
Joplin, missouri,
And oklahoma city is mighty pretty.
You see amarillo,
Gallup, new mexico,
Flagstaff, arizona.
Don’t forget winona,
Kingman, barstow, san bernandino.”
That’s all the prodding we needed to head out for an adventure. We heard about this place called Fire and Ice that was about 70 miles away which allowed you to hike up to the rim of a volcano and down into an old lava tube that was a natural ice cave and stayed 31 degrees F all year around. So, we packed up our waters, dried apple slices, beef jerky, and of course, our camera.
About 50 miles down the road we came across El Morro National Monument. It looked pretty impressive standing there amidst the desert brush and flatlands, especially with the bright blue sky and zig zagging jet streams as a backdrop.
At first it seemed like a drive by experience, but we found our way to the visitor’s center set back from the main road. Turns out, this was a pretty big deal. The Visitor’s Center was equipped with a museum, a store filled with books on the local area and a Park Ranger that handed us a trail guide, pointed us in the right direction and told us the 2 mile loop should take us about an hour to hike.
At the bottom of this sandstone cliff was a pool of water that existed solely from rain water and snow melt. Apparently it has never gone dry and people have been stopping by this pool since before the 1600’s. Right along the pool of water there are petroglyphs and messages etched into the sandstone. The things these people could do with some sandstone and a knife makes me think we’ve lost the art of script.
Considering we at first thought this was nothing more than a cool thing to take photos of as we drove past it slowly, the fact that we were walking along the face of this monument and then were able to hike up 200 feet in elevation to walk along the top of it to the old ruins was pretty cool. And with the fall colours, the dark blue sky, and the fact that we had the trail to ourselves, we couldn’t get enough of the scenery.
Needless to say, we did not finish the 2 mile hike in the recommended hour. 2 1/2 hours later, we finally made it back on the road to continue our adventure for the day.
Fire and Ice:
First we hiked up a hill of volcanic rock to see the opening of an old volcano. Although interesting to say you are standing where a volcano erupted 10,000 years ago, there really wasn’t much to see. It kind of felt like we had paid $10 each for a gym membership – steep incline on a slippery volcanic rock surface is a pretty good workout.
We finished up our hike by heading to the natural ice cave. As soon as you hit the stairs down into it you can feel the temperature decreasing.
Who would think in the middle of the desert in New Mexico you would find a wall of ice.
All in all, a great day of exploring the natural landscape. I woke up that morning thinking we were going to drive to Phoenix, AZ and instead, we ended up hiking the same paths as the Spaniards from the 1600’s, climbing a volcano and feeling a bone chilling 31 degrees in the middle of the desert.
** This post was ‘Freshly Pressed’ on November 17, 2011**
Adventures On the Road 