Grants New Mexico

We are on our way to the big Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque but had some time on our hands before our reservation there. We had driven through Grants many times as we traveled east along the I-40, but never stopped there. Several surprises awaited us that we had not expected.

Grants was settled soon after the Civil War both for mining and transportation reasons. Minerals in the area attracted the attention of miners, and the laying of the railroad lines essentially along the corridor for I-40 made Grants an obvious candidate as a rail hub. Originally the town was called Grants Camp in the 1880’s because 3 Canadian brothers, Angus, John and Lewis Grant, were awarded a contract to build a section of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. The name was changed to Grants Station, and ultimately just Grants. After the low grade minerals were no longer economical to mine in the area, focus turned to the lumber industry due to the nearby Cibola National Forest.

In the 1930’s lumbering petered out, the recently created Bluewater Reservoir brought new live to the town. It turned out the regions volcanic soils coupled with the adjacent sandstone, when adding the new irrigation possibilities provided by the reservoir made Grants the Carrot Capital of the US. The later development of Route 66 (which Grants was on) and an airway beacon for commercial flight that was located here resulted in new life each time the town was on the verge of dying.

The most memorable boom in Grants occurred in 1950 when Paddy Martinez, a local Native American, discovered Uranium ore in the area. Apparently Martinez had surveyed all the area around Grants and had a very good memory. While overhearing a conversation among geologists who had visited Grants in search of ore deposits, Paddy readily recognized the ore they were describing, and returned to Haystack Mesa where he discovered the first major claim. Other mines in the area soon emerged, and this Uranium mining boom lasted into the 1980’s, when the market price of Uranium sunk to a point where it was no longer profitable to mine here. We visited the Grants Chamber of Commerce offices which have built a replica of a typical Uranium mine from the boom days in their basement. The authentic displays of actual artifacts from the local mines, coupled with recorded narration from mine workers, is a compelling and effective presentation, well worth the time and small fee.

The other big surprise for us was El Malpais National Monument. Years ago we had visited El Morro National Monument to see the famous Inscription Rock which has signatures by visitors dating back to the Spanish Conquistadores. Even at that time El Malpais was a National Monument, but because it was not managed by the National Park Service it did not have as much visibility, and we missed it even though it was only 30 or so miles away.

El Malpais is another of the volcanic parks that have been designated as National Parks and National Monuments, but it’s in a place where you might not have expected this level of ancient volcanic activity.  The lava flows here are extensive with lava tube systems stretching over 17 miles, but the flows are only 2,000 to 3,000 years old. In geologic terms, this is really young.

The most interesting part is that because it is mostly managed by the BLM, there are not massive services available. In a volcanic National Park, there would likely be ranger led tours into the lava tubes, but here, you obtain a caving permit, and you are on your own to explore any of the lava tubes you want to.

We stopped at the ranger station for some advice, and got the worst ever! The Ranger looked out the window at the Saturn and she said "I strongly recommend you don't go out to the lava tube area in that - your tires are too thin and you don't have enough clearance. I would also be afraid that you would break your bike rack hanging on the back on the horribly rough road. Last week a guy went out there with a low clearance vehicle and his bearings broke - he had to be towed out." Well, that is just the kind of talk to inspire the Woman. Assuming our plans were out of the question she started saying things like "Maybe we can rent a jeep somewhere around here to be able to get in." And she almost had me thinking about that seriously when I snapped out of it and said "Well, maybe we will do that, but not after we get a chance to see what the road is like for ourselves." After 10 or 15 minutes of mostly ho-hum driving (I did have to watch closely for holes and ruts) we pulled into the parking lot for the Big Tubes. I took a look and the bikes were somehow still there!

The major location of the lava tubes more easily reached in the Monument is called the Big Tubes area. Unfortunately this area contains mostly Ah Ah lave – extremely sharp and jagged – as opposed to Pahoehoe lave, which is a bit smother with ridges and flows. Our friend Vern Bieraugel who lives in Kona Hawaii always said they called this kind of lava Ah Ah because that what anyone would scream who walked on it! While the Woman had no interest at all in entering the caves, I put on my jeans, my hikers, grabbed a flashlight as well as my headlamp, and I was ready to have at it. While I only explored a few of the caves, at least the ones I didn’t have to crawl through (even though I brought kneepads, I decided it was a bad idea), I still got enough to satisfy my curiosity. While Monument information indicated that bats lived in the caves, I didn’t happen upon any in by visits.

The Woman was quite excited to learn that the Continental Divide Trail not only went right through the middle of El Malpais National Monument, but it also went right through the middle of Grants New Mexico. In the middle of the monument is the Zuni-Acoma Trail, and ancient Native American route used by Zuni and Acoma to cross these massive lava flows. We hiked in from both ends of the trail – one is on NM 117 on the east edge of the Monument, and the other is on NM 53 on the western edge. The CDT follows NM 53 along the western edge of the Monument, then across the lava flows on the Zuni-Acoma Trail, and then runs north along NM 117 until it reaches the eastern edge of Grants.

Once it hits Grants, the CDT follows old Route 66 to the center of town, then heads north again along NM 457 on its way to Mount Taylor, one of the highest peaks in New Mexico. We followed the CDT north out of town along NM 457 until it left the highway and started its assent right up to Mount Taylor on US Forest Service land. We hiked up a bit, but given the heat and altitude and all the hiking we had done earlier, this particular leg of the CDT was pretty short.

The eastern edge of the Monument shows how the lava found the low land next to the higher Sandstone Bluffs area that provide spectacular views of the massive lava flows. While enjoying climbing on the immense bluffs and taking in the views, we discovered the long abandoned Garrett Homestead. Like we had seen in other remote areas, this home was built near the end of the Great Depression using recycled materials. The family gathered already cut stone from abandoned Anasazi dwellings and built themselves a rather comfortable home. Maybe this was one of the original Earthships in New Mexico!

South of the Sandstone Bluffs along NM 117, the El Malpais National Monument lava flows on the east run right up against a 500-600 foot tall sandstone wall called the Narrows Ridge that runs for miles. Smack in the middle of that wall is one of the largest stone arches in New Mexico, La Ventana. Spanish for “The Window”, this was a really impressive feature that we could nearly drive right to, so we weren’t going to pass it up for anything. While we weren’t able to get up close and personal – couldn’t touch it for example, but we were able to get close enough to feel we were there.

But, I wasn’t ready to be done with La Ventana. 4 miles to the South along NM Highway 117 was the beginning of the Narrows Ridge. There was a nice picnic area there where we had a nice lunch, and then I talked the Woman into setting out on the Narrows Ridge Trail. It seemed more of a challenge than trails we had been doing lately – 8 miles round trip and an elevation gain of around 600 feet. But when the trail ended, you would find yourself at the La Ventana overlook – a natural stone viewing platform high above the arch.

We started out on the trail with both enthusiasm and optimism. The trail ran all along the edge of the Narrows Ridge, so you always had great views of the vast lava flows in El Malpais National Monument. But it was both hot and sunny and not much for shade. So, with the elevation gain pretty continuous on the way to the overlook, the going was harder than I thought. When we finally reached a big rock with “2.0 M” painted on it, the Woman said “if we are only halfway there, I don’t think I can do this!” I told her I would like to give it a go, and she said “well, we can try a little further.” I said “if we are just going to hike another mile and turn around, I would rather just turn around now. The only reason to continue now would be to try to get to the overlook. If we have to bail, then we have to bail, but I don’t just want to walk a little further and plan to turn around.”

With a pained look the Woman said she would try to finish. And to her credit, despite running out of water in what turned out to be a 5 hour ordeal, she did do it. We stopped a bunch in what little shade we could find, and we always had in mind the two rewards we would experience when we arrived – the overhead view of the arch, and the geocache container that someone had hidden at the end of the trail. Both possible rewards kept us going until the goal was achieved. And the best news was that the geocache container was actually there and we found it. We find that geocaches that are remote like this one aren’t always there when you arrive – so bonus!

We had a couple of other minor things we wanted to do in the park, but after the 5 hours we committed to the hike, dusk was already approaching. So, we decided that we had done all we needed to on this visit to El Malpais. But we got one more unexpected reward in Grants. Tonight was the visit of the “Blood Moon” or “Super Moon”, where the complete eclipse of the moon caused by the Earth passing right directly between the Sun and the Moon causes the moon to appear bigger than from Earth than at any other time. It is the first time this has happened since 1982, and it won’t happen again until 2033. So we were happy to be in a location with very little light pollution, and big skies to see the impressive result.

Talk to you soon!