Volcano Hike
In visiting Petroglyph National Monument, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this area is widespread with lots of geographic- and geologic!- variety. We were traveling with friends, and we were debating how much oomph we had, and we determined that we had enough oomph to tackle The Volcanoes Day Use Area of Petroglyph National Monument.
This area is about a 15-20 minute drive from the Visitors Center. I had read some warnings that there could be some crime and violence in the area and to secure your vehicles. The area is in a pretty remote area, so maybe that is why they said that. We had no trouble on our visit, except the trouble we caused ourselves. 😀 We only ran into one other person while we were out there.
We had experienced a very delightful hike prior to this. When we arrived at The Volcanoes area, it was very windy- there are no trees or rocks to block the wind up here. You are on top of an escarpment overlooking the city of Albuquerque. It was absolutely stunning. And, as I mentioned, windy. We had experienced a little rain up to that point, and as we hiked, we got to experience even more. And wind too!
This area is home to three volcanoes- JA Volcano, Black Volcano, and Vulcan Volcano. A little further north is Bond Volcano. There are a few trails, and we ended up looping all three volcanoes, ascending them and walking up and down. The trail is not especially difficult, moderately rugged, and did feel long due to the wind. Our kids were troopers and it was fun to say we had climbed volcanoes!
Another fun experience was catching the tumbleweeds. I had never gotten to experience one up close like that. It was pretty cool!
On the top of the first volcano- the one you could truly summit- it was so windy, I was worried about the little ones! It was strong. But we had amazing views. The pictures do not do it justice at all, and you can barely tell we are on top of anything. 😀
We did also get to experience sweeping vistas of the city and the Rio Grande Valley. It was gorgeous. We were on the fence about continuing or returning to our car. We continued and conquered the most difficult of all the climbs. Again, the kids did great, so did the adults, and we were all proud of ourselves!
This was a unique and fun hiking experience that I would totally do again in a heartbeat. But was not even my favorite on our New Mexico adventure!
