We headed south on Hwy 117 again today. We stopped at the BLM primitive campground called Joe Skeen Campground. The road in has a large steep dip that would certainly prevent us from taking the Majestic in--we'd bottom out for sure. There are ten sites with picnic tables under shelters, fire rings, and great views. Some of them would actually be okay for a longer rig. The BLM is looking for volunteer hosts for this campground.
We left Hwy 117 to turn south on Cibola County Road #41. Some friends of ours have a place about seventeen miles down this dirt road. They aren't in residence right now but invited us to check out their little corner of remote paradise. Boy is it remote! Most of the road is washboarded, so it made for a rather slow and uncomfortable ride. However, once we got to their place, the views were wonderful. Looking south, you can see the Sawtooth Mountains.
After a picnic lunch, we headed back north into El Malpais again to hike the Lava Falls Trail. It's a relatively short one mile circular trail with one spur. The trail is marked by cairns, but they are often difficult to find. The sign at the head of the trail cautions hikers not to leave one cairn before sighting the next, so one of us always stayed at the last known cairn while the other scouted to find the next cairn. At one point after signpost #3 (keyed to an informative brochure about the trail) we could not find the next cairn and so had to head back to the parking lot.
We decided to try following the trail in the clockwise direction and had more success, until we came to a cairn at the base of a steep cliff that seemed to be a dead end, so we returned to the truck again. We decided to call it a day. Now we realize that the dead end was actually on the spur trail and that we missed the junction where the trail split. Part continued in the counterclockwise direction--the part we missed seeing--and another part led on a spur into a deep amphitheater.
Despite missing part of the trail, we are very glad we took this hike. As you can see, the lava fields are extremely varied. There's smooth, often ropy lava called pahoehoe (from the Hawaiian). Some lava has been weathered into loose pieces rather like the rocks in a barbecue grill. Some of the lava forms deep cavities, while other parts are uplifted.
Deep fissures mark the terrain. It's an impressive, unfamiliar landscape. It reminded us of hiking at Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island, except that the youngest lava here in the McCartys flow is around 3,000 years old. No smoke and smell of brimstone emanates from this lava, and it doesn't threaten to melt your shoes!
Nonetheless, it can be treacherous footing. The sign at the trailhead warns, "This isn't your typical walk in the park," and suggests sturdy hiking shoes and plenty of water. It says a GPS unit would be useful, since magnetic compasses are thrown off by the iron content of much of the lava.
We didn't get back home until after 7:00 p.m., tired but happy, and very hungry. The weather forecast for tomorrow is not promising, so we've decided to take the day off from sightseeing and instead do our laundry and shopping and catch up with ourselves.
We watched a PBS Arts special tonight: Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four String. It's about a ukelele virtuoso, but really delves into Jake's life, the development of his music, and the human story behind his musical career. For example, it shows Jake accompanying his (now former) manager, Kaz Flanagan, to her hometown in Japan, Sendai, which was completely destroyed by the tsunami
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