3545. Go to El Malpais National Monument in Grants

We were looking at potential route to Phoenix from Dodge City since we were staying in Chandler coming down from Flagstaff didn't really make sense. We found a route that took us through southwest through New Mexico and crossing farther south than we usually do. As I was looking at this route, I saw it literally ran along the side of El Malpais National Monument. I've been wanting to visit El Malpais for awhile but figured the hubby wasn't too much into exploring lava tubes. The only thing was the visitor center was 10 minutes of the way. When I mentioned all this to the hubby, he was game and we could even stop and get my stamp.

El Malpais National Monument is a stark landscape of limestone and ancient volcanic rock.. basalt, lava tube caves, cinder cones, and spatter cones. It is nothing like we have in the Midwest. 

We stopped at the visitor center, got my passport stamped, and then checked out the small museum. We learned a bit of the rugged and unique landscape. Then it was back in the car to explore part of the eastern edge of the park. 

Our first stop was Sandstone Bluff Overlook. This required a relatively steep drive up a gravel road. The road is actually closed when it rains because it will flood out. There is small parking lot on top along with some informational signs and then you can check out the views.

We saw the ancient Zuni Mountains.

The lave flows

And Mount Taylor which is the second latest volcano in New Mexico and an old extinct volcano.

The sandstone ledges were impressive too.

Back in the car, we passed more lava flows on our way to our second stop -- La Ventana Natural Arch. This is technically not part of the National Monument but part of the El Malprais National Conversation Area. 

You can view the Arch from the parking lot or follow a short trail to get closer. You can even scramble the rocks to get even closer -- the hubby would have freaked if I tried that.

We then followed the highway through the El Malprais National Conversation area to back to US 60 and that took us into Arizona.

El Malprais is definitely worth the detour. We only saw a tiny fraction of the park. Hopefully one day we can explore the other side. The hubby does like the lava flows. We probably spent 10-15 minutes at each stop which was a nice stretch break.