Capulin Volcano NM and Clayton State Park

We left after breakfast and a trip to the dump.  We saw and heard a turkey gobbling on the way out of Sumner Lake.  Yesterday we saw a beautiful orange, black, white and yellow robin sized biird in our camp.  The weather is cool at 67 and it is overcast.  The park lighting is superb without any street lights and a few subdued walkway lights that looked like Easter Island statues shining orange light.

We had lunch at a rest area without facilities outside Las Vegas, NM.  The wind was really blowing and it was 76 degrees at noon. We stopped at Capulin Volcano National Monument.  This was a cinder cinder cone volcano about 1,000 feet high.  The lady at the desk named Vanita Brown is a shirt tail relative of Hardy's.  Her grandmother was Vanita Willett whose grandfather was Alexander Hamilton Willett.  He found two geocaches and answered questions to the earth cache.  He took a picture of him and the casita showing that we could not take the trailer up on the volcano so hopefully that will fulfill any questions.

Capulin Volcano is at more than 7000 feet in elevation. Summers are cooler than typical of the Southwest and winters are cold and snowy. In summer, highs may reach 85 with lows in the 50s. Winter may have warm days in the 60s, but single digit temperatures and snow are common. Between 58,000 to 62,000 years ago, just yesterday on the clock of geologic time, the scene near Capulin would have been one of fire, ash, glowing lava, and ear-shattering explosions.

Capulin Volcano

Capulin Volcano formed during the most recent period of activity in the Raton-Clayton Volcanic Field. The cone rises more than 1,000 feet above the plains to 8,182 feet above sea level and consists chiefly of loose cinders, ash, and other rock debris. These materials were ejected during successive eruptions and fell back upon the vent, piling up to form the conical mountain. The symmetry of Capulin Volcano was preserved because lava did not flow from the main crater but from secondary vents located at the western base of the cone. Evidence of the other episodes of activity can be seen in nearly 100 nearby volcanic peaks and lava capped mesas. The largest of these volcanic peaks is the Sierra Grande, an extinct volcano rising some 2,200 feet above the surrounding plain, about 10 miles to the southeast. The largest lava flow is Johnson Mesa, 14 miles long and 7 miles wide, to the west of Capulin.

Clayton State Park

We headed to Clayton State Park in New Mexico.  We traveled about 300 miles today and mostly along the Santa Fe Trail.  Apparently you can still see old wagon tracks in some areas.  We didn't see them but that is what is reported.  We met another camper from Vernon, TX who was quite a talker and a ham radio operator.

A big dude

We took a walk out to the spillway and looked at the dinosaur tracks that were uncovered when they were building the spillway for the dam. Along the spillway, more than 500 dinosaur footprints have been preserved and identified. Plant-eating and carnivorous dinosaurs, as well as some ancient crocodiles, made these prints. Markers identify significant tracks.