Oops, Lost in the Outback

Self-portrait of Photographer 
Last Sunday I left to go visit my sister in San Fidel, New Mexico. I had intended to do my TW3 blog Sunday evening but one thing led to another. Have cameras and will use them. Monday we were in Albuquerque and upon our return too the great cloud/storm photos featured on Creative Journey.  Tuesday we went for a walk at the El Malpais National Monument. We chose the Lava Falls walk on the youngest of the lava flows in the area. Only 3000 years. It occurred to us that recent news of earth quakes in New Mexico and Colorado and upgrade of this "dormant" volcanic field to could be active without warning made this not the wisest of outings.

But, hell, what is life without some risk. One of the biggest risks on this walk was losing your balance on the uneven footing of the rough basalt and falling. I frankly began to look at the cacti as soft.


Reading of the hike brochure (after our return to the car) said that the following picture is smooth or pahoehoe  lava. There were definitions of Hawaiian terms but no definition of smooth. They did mention that pahoehoe lava frequently has a ropy texture which seems to contradict my definition of smooth.

Pahoehoe lava
This slab of basalt looked smoother to me, but don't let that fool you. The surface could still cut you to ribbons if you fell on it and the cracks seem to have no bottoms at times. Not unlike life frankly.

Life grabs a toe hold

Unexpected color
So how amidst this landscape do you follow the path? Cairns. A mound of stones erected as a marker or memorial. It is wise to note you should never leave one cairn until you have spotted the next one. And they advise you to not erect your own cairns or add to or take away from the existing cairns. Making of cairns is the priority of the national monument staff and they have a bit of a sense of humor. Many were "idols" like the one below with two stone eyes and a twig nose.

I found myself wondering if the more elaborate cairns were in fact monuments to those hikers, who like my sister and myself, left our water in the car, or lost their way between cairns.

Cairn Lavaman
It is wise to note if you decide to undertake this adventure that the iron in the basalt makes cellphone reception virtually impossible. The "field" is not flat always flat so spotting the car park not easy. Nor is discerning where the next cairn is. There is one in the picture below.

Lava Falls
And sometimes there seems to be rather challenging territory to cross to the next cairn.


Heading to the next cairn - can you see it?
We really enjoyed out walk on the wild side. By the way the seemingly baby vegetation is at times hundreds of year old natural bonsai. No worries about visitors digging them up and taking them home.

Comments

Post a Comment

I write for me but I care what my readers think. Please be polite and no scamming.

Popular posts from this blog

Swimming

Image
For much of my college career my fitness workout was swimming on the B squad of the swim team. I remember it as the days before heated pools and women coaches. I also remember being so exhausted and cold I could only lean against the shower wall and throw up. Not exactly warm fuzzy images but I was in awesome shape. Needless to say it did not leave me with a overpowering desire to swim laps. Point of fact for years my swimming became really informal: Swimming to shore after the canoe tipped over, challenging my sister once a summer to across the lake and back, seeing how long I could back float without moving a muscle, and a scuba course. I also played around with other ways of staying fit: aerobics, bicycling, jogging, skiing and dance classes. All of which seem to be bad for the knees, back or feet. After my ski accident my physical therapist steered me back to the pool. Damn if I was going to swim laps! However, aqua fit was just getting rather seriously taken so I took it. It r
Read more

The Pruning the Crown of Thorns

Image
Crown of Thorns Before I am a lover of Euphorbias . They are from the deserts of Southern Africa and Madagascar. They have evolved physical characteristics and forms similar to cacti of North and South America and are often incorrectly referred to as cacti. My big Crown of Thorns was one of my first of a growing collection of these succulents from the spurge family of Euphorbiaceae. I picked it up as a 6 inch plant in a New Iberia nursery when my sister and I were touring the northern gulf coast. I believe that was 15 years ago. I made an attempt at limiting its height a few years back to allow it to devote more energy to the new branches and make it a denser plant. That failed. And the height of the plant continued to challenge the window space and soon the long branches were leaning over and leaning against the window. I googled and found the proper way to prune this treasured plant. Still it was very difficult to cut off the four longer branches. Even with a plan. The f
Read more

Eagle Nest Dam

Image
Tour of Eagle Nest Dam Eagle Nest Dam is the largest privately built dam in the United States. It was begun by the Springer family in 1917 and completed in 1920. It and the reservoir beyond it one was privately owned by the CS Ranch which recently sold it to the state of New Mexico. Eagle Nest Lake is now a state park, but the dam and the waters in the lake are another matter all together. Water is well regulated in New Mexico especially during a drought. The lake is now at 25% of its normal capacity, and the water in the lake are water right lease holds of Raton, Cimarron, and historic ranches in the area like the UU Bar and the CS Ranch. Game and Fish department also get involved because the Cimarron River is an active fishery of the state. Our guide was a state engineer and the Gateway Museum secured permission of the land owners below the dam for us to gain access to the area. Some 100 locals and tourists attended this rare event. I have lived here almost twenty years and th
Read more