These Are the Days: El Malpais

We decided to go out on a spontaneous adventure on Saturday. We wanted to check out El Malpais, it is a National Monument about an hour and a half west from where we live. The National Monument covers a huge area, it is more like a National Park and there are a lot of things to see. We decided to see the Ventana Arch and the Bandera Ice Cave and Volcano. We drove to the Arch first and had a little picnic. Then we did the short quarter mile hike to the arch. It is really neat and the landscape around is beautiful. There are steep rock cliffs and Mesas. There are also large field of prairie grass and vegetation. After the arch we headed over to the cave and volcano. The GPS unit wanted us to go back up to the freeway and then back down. We could see on the map there there was a shorter way via a country road. We decided to ignore the GPS and try the back country road. When we got to the road there was a huge sign warning you that the road is impassable when wet and to drive it at your own risk. The road was dry at the moment but the sky was full of rain clouds threatening to rain. We decided to chance it anyway and I am so glad that we did, the drive was breathtaking! We saw Ponderosa Pine and Douglass Firs, prairies filled with flowers and so much more. We saw three huge Elk running along side of us and got stopped by a big herd of cows. The road was not too bad, although there were a few spots that were quite muddy and we slid around quite a bit. We got to the Volcano and started the hike up to the top. It started to pour rain so we hid out in a small cave for awhile. We finally made it to the top and it was pretty amazing to see. Then we hiked over to the Ice Cave. You walk down a steep set of stairs to get inside. It is 31 degrees down there and the water stays frozen all year. The water has some sort of Arctic effect so it is green. It was really cool to see! On the drive home we saw a sign for the "best hamburgers in Laguna" so we decided to stop there for dinner. They did not disappoint the burgers and homemade fries were amazing! The whole day was so fun and relaxing, we had no plan we just set out for an adventure and it couldn't have been better!