Monday, July 30, 2012

El Malpais NM & Ice cave

I had a primo bike ride this morning up Zuni canyon. After I returned we went to El Malpais Nation Monument. It's an area of cinder cones and lava flows. We did a pretty interesting hike and I did the skree thing. I looked up at that slope and couldn't resist. Next up was a privately owned cinder cone called Bandera crater. It was really cool. It erupted a mere 10,000 years ago. Also on the property was a lava tube that due to some peculiar circumstances has a 20 foot deep ice cube in it. It never gets above freezing in this hole. There was a long staircase that descended into this cave. At a certain point the air was 85 and after a few more steps it was 31. The 2 pics are of the ice. (It green because of some Arctic algae) and Jenny looking into Bandera crater.



No comments:

Post a Comment