May 10 2018. We continued our exploration of Volcanic badlands today – but this time on foot. Hiked the El Calderon area of El Malpais National Monument, saw lava tubes, caves, lava flows, sinks, close up cinder cone, and cinder bombs; cool stuff!
Chuck at mouth of Junction Cave, El Malpais National Monumentchecking out another lava cave at the El Calderon Area of El MalpaisThis is a Lava Sink – very deep – at El MalpaisSo much lava around, someone lined the hiking trail with lava rocks!Xenolith Cave entranceIf you get a (free) permit, you can crawl through the caves – the trail signs are cute!Looking a the inside of the Cinder Cone for El CalderonClimbing up the side of the Cinder ConeYes, we saw wildlife! Here is a lizard!
Then we traveled nearby to the commercial “ICE CAVE and BANDERA VOLCANO” site. This was actually much better than we had hoped, and we would recommend it. The hike to the volcano was relatively short, the cinder cone was magnificent. The Ice Cave was very educational (and also nice and cool after the hike to the volcano). The inside of the ice cave stays at no more than 31 degrees F.
Inside the cinder cone, BANDERA VolcanoViewing the BANDERA cinder coneLava flows at BANDERA VolcanoLava flows at BANDERA VolcanoGoing down 70 steps into the Ice caveViewing Platform at bottom of steps at the ice caveIce at the Ice cave – oldest ice dates back to 1100 AD
