Valley of Fires

Visited 2017.11.09
Central New Mexico

Plotting the roads I'd take using Google Maps, I came across an odd patch of barren, black wasteland. Between that and the name of the place, I had to check it out. Up close, it isn't as barren as it appeared. The lava rock is hell on boots though, as I learned hiking out into the terrain a bit, and not something you'd want to fall down on.

From the BLM: “Approximately 5,000 years ago, Little Black Peak erupted and flowed 44 miles into the Tularosa Basin, filling the basin with molten rock. The resulting lava flow is four to six miles wide, 160 feet thick and covers 125 square miles. The lava flow is considered to be one of the youngest lava flows in the continental United States.”

Valley of Fires at blm.gov