Valley of Fires
Friday, 7 December
As we neared the Valley of Fires, we checked the weather forecast and found no rain expected for a period. With it being overcast and 50 degrees, we decided to visit the Valley of Fires. We went by the Visitor Center to confirm what trails there were to do - the only marked trail is the 0.75 mile nature trail.
Geologists believe that the lava of the Carrizozo Malpais flowed from volcanic events in the valley floor about 5,000 years ago. It is one of the youngest and best preserved lava flows in the United States. The volcano was not the source of the lava flow. Instead the lava emerged from openings, called vents, in the valley floor. The lava flow is 5 miles wide, 44 miles long, and 165 feet deep in places.
It got colder than forecast last night, and around 2:30am, I heard what I thought was sleet pelting Sprinty’s roof. In making preparations to get underway after sunrise, I found some unmelted sleet on the wiper blades confirming what I heard during the night. I also found at least three windshield chips from yesterday’s travels.
We are still trying to adjust to the time change. As a result, we were up earlier than normal. Early enough that we thought it might good to call Mercedes Benz of Albuquerque to see if we could move up our appointment time of noon to something earlier. They said they could accommodate us earlier, so we broke camp and headed for the dealer on the other side of Albuquerque.
Sprinty was approaching his 20,000 mile service interval, and we wanted to try and get it done with the least impact to our travels. It took them 2.5 hours to complete the various service items. We were reunited with Sprinty about 11:30, which was before the time of our originally scheduled appointment.
We had research the weather to see what our options for heading out of Albuquerque were. Our list of things to see and do in New Mexico were mostly West and Northeast. West, North, and East all had forecast low temperatures in the 20s and to the East also had snow and ice. Only going South could we stay above freezing, and avoid snow/ice. The weather forecast was still calling for rain along I-25 towards Las Cruces, NM, so we were not sure what activities were possible for today. We decided to spend the night near Alamogordo, NM, a three hours drive, to position us to visit White Sands National Monument tomorrow. We also saw that a slight deviation in our route would take us by the Valley of Fires Recreation Area, which is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
Right after we got off I-25, on the outskirts of San Antonio, NM, we stopped at a historical marker that we found interesting:
As we neared the Valley of Fires, we checked the weather forecast and found no rain expected for a period. With it being overcast and 50 degrees, we decided to visit the Valley of Fires. We went by the Visitor Center to confirm what trails there were to do - the only marked trail is the 0.75 mile nature trail.
Geologists believe that the lava of the Carrizozo Malpais flowed from volcanic events in the valley floor about 5,000 years ago. It is one of the youngest and best preserved lava flows in the United States. The volcano was not the source of the lava flow. Instead the lava emerged from openings, called vents, in the valley floor. The lava flow is 5 miles wide, 44 miles long, and 165 feet deep in places.
As we completed the nature walk and returned to the parking lot, a check,of the elevation using the Apple Compass app showed we were at 5,240 feet elevation.
One of the features along the nature trail was a juniper tree estimated to be 400 years old:
We considered spending the night in the Valley of Fires campground - while there were sites available, rechecking the projected low temperatures encouraged us to save it for another trip.
We then headed for Alamogordo, NM. While there was a BLM dispersed campground between Alamogordo and White Sands National Monument that would have been free (true boondocking), we would have just been getting there at sunset on a cloudy day. Discretion suggested we not try and set Sprinty up in the dark in dispersed camping along unpaved roads. So we picked an independent campground, Desert Paradise MH and RV Park on the south side of Alamogordo, NM based on reviews on AllStays. They had 6-8 sites available, all self-checkin.
Side note: when we started the day, the only plan we had was to get Sprinty serviced. We thought we might be able to get in the road, but we were also prepared to spend another night in Albuquerque. Weather is playing a bigger role than anticipated in our planning, and we are glad that by not having plans, we can adjust quickly to new information - about weather, about what seems interesting to see, etc. Tonight we sketched out a plan that is more than 48 hours in advance. We’ll see if thing go according to plan.
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