Expedition Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller
Date: May 23, 2024
El Malpais means “Badlands” which is a good name for this extremely barren and black volcanic field that covers most of the park. The park has lava tubes, caves, cinder cones, sandstone bluffs, and jagged volcanic landscape, a large part of which is the Zuni-Bandera Lava Field. The park has lots of birds, lizards, rattlesnakes and other critters. I saw many lizards during our hikes. We planned to hike the 4.8 mile of the El Calderon Trail which would take us through a Ponderosa pine forest up to the top of a cinder cone, but the rangers were doing a large control burn and the smoke covered most of that trail. Instead, we drove six miles and hiked four miles on the Zuni-Acoma Trail. Prior to the hike we visited and hiked Baldera Crater and the Baldera Ice Cave.
