Cales vs the Volcano: Capulin Volcano Nat'l Monument 9/26/09

We seem to have passed that blasted highway sign at least a thousand times on our travels through New Mexico. Located 33 miles east of I-25 and the once thriving town of Raton, we always took notice of the honest-to-goodness volcano as we made our way to or from Santa Fe (a frequent destination for its film festival), but could never be bothered to actually see it in person. We even drove by the entrance itself while coming back from our Texas trip. It beckoned, and we passed by in silence, as if it weren't pretty damn cool that a now extinct volcano (having last erupted anywhere from 56,000 to 62,000 years ago) was only a few hundred miles away from home. As with so much of our now travel-obsessed existence, it took the passport book to push us beyond mere consideration. Taking advantage of a particularly lovely September weekend, we left after work on a Friday, stayed the night in Pueblo, then drove to Capulin the following day, returning later with good memories and two delightful stamps. Capulin, at last, was no longer a stranger.

As always, the first stop is the visitor center, and this one, built in 1963, is overdue for a touch-up. Hell, raze it to the ground and start over. It's small, dated, and lacking any real displays that qualify as educational. At bottom, it would bore the hell out of the kids, who should be the primary audience for anything as fascinating as a reachable volcano. Still, the passport station was intact and ready to receive us, and that's about all we paused to notice before moving on our way. Unlike Sunset Crater in Arizona, visitors can drive to the very summit of this volcano, though the two-mile road (built in 1925, paved in 1987) that takes you there is surely a product of a time before preservation firmly took hold. At least here, the violation is a good thing, as it would be impossible to appreciate the site's beauty without staring into its once violent crater.

As one drives to the top, Capulin's reach becomes readily apparent, as the landscape demonstrates an extensive lava field well beyond the cone. The cone itself reaches 1,000 feet above the plains, and is so well preserved because the cinders, ash, and debris ejected from the earth fell back upon the vent and piled up. And as the site's web page tells us, "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." The trees and extensive growth on the cone itself also slow the erosion process that affects similar sites. Still, one day it will all be gone, a victim of the very forces that gave it life.

Once at the top, there are two hiking possibilities: a one-mile Crater Rim Trail rail that gives a complete 360-degree view, and the Crater Vent Trail, which is 0.2 miles long (one way) and takes visitors to the very bottom of the crater. The latter has a 100-foot elevation change in a very short distance, so needless to say it made me regret the choice as I huffed my way back up. There are other, more difficult hikes along the lava trail, but we all know how those would end up. It's best to stay at the top, as the Raton-Clayton volcanic field and endless stretch of New Mexican land are truly spectacular. While the visit was relatively brief given the distance traveled, it was no small thing to say that we had spent a few hours not in a shopping mall or dark theater, but a geological wonder that once electrified the region with belching fire and fury.

FINAL RATING

7/10