King of the world!

Friday morning we left Pueblo Colorado heading South towards New Mexico.  Off to the West, a heavy cloud cover settled on the mountains and stayed there for our 3 hour trip to Raton, New Mexico.  At Raton, we went to the New Mexico Welcome Center and discovered that that Capulin Volcano National Monument was about 30 miles East along US64 right on our planned route to the Oklahoma Panhandle.  The monument was about 3 miles North and 1/4 mile above the town of Capulin.  Mary & I enjoyed the visitor center there and decided to hike the crater rim to get away from all the noises of civilization.  Capulin is a unique example of a nearly intact cinder cone volcano – they usually erode quickly (in geologic time) but for some inexplicable reason, vegetation grew on this one fairly soon and prevented major erosion.

From everywhere on the crater rim, the view extended to the horizon perhaps 50 miles away.  We were standing in New Mexico while to the North was Colorado, Northeast was Oklahoma and to the Southeast Texas.  The only sounds were the wind, birds and our own breathing.  We had eagles for company but failed to see and of the rattlesnakes the rangers cautioned us about.  After our decent, we continued on to the prairie of “No mans land” in the Oklahoma panhandle spending the night in Guymon and had a great dinner at the Acapulco Restaurant there.

This was a unique and unexpected experience.  Click here for more photos and be sure to watch the video below.