On Top of the World

We left the hotel this morning a little after 7:00AM and headed about 30 miles east on US-64, turning onto NM-325 north towards Capulin Volcano National Monument. The reason for our early start was because Saiki-delic vacations usually involve some form of self-inflicted suffering. 😜

☑ Unit #189

In truth, maybe we are gluttons for punishment, but besides having a lot of ground to cover today, I didn't want to fight any crowds for a parking spot on this holiday weekend. So the goal was to be there when the Volcano Road up to the rim opened at 8:00AM. 

We arrived at the park around 7:45AM and walked around the Nature Trail next to the visitor center while we waited. One of the features along the short paved trail was a volcanic "squeeze-up". 

After the ranger opened the visitor center, we headed inside to show our annual pass in lieu of paying the $20/car entrance fee and then started the 2-mile drive up to the crater rim. It took about 15 minutes for us to wind our way around the cinder cone to the parking lot at the top (elevation 7877 feet). The views of the Raton-Clayton Volcanic Field were impressive!

Looking northeast toward Folsom, NM

Looking west at Jose Butte (center right) with the snowcapped Sangre de Cristo range of the Rocky Mountains in the distance

Northwest view: Jose Butte (center left) and Robinson Peak (8000', center right)

View to the south: Palo Blanco Mountain (left back), Horseshoe Crater (left front), Pine Buttes (center), Laughlin Peak (8820', center right) and Melon Mesa (foreground)

We decided to hike the Crater Rim Trail first (1 mile loop, 305' elevation gain), going counter-clockwise. 

Can you spot our "covered wagon" in the parking lot below?!

Sierra Grande (shield volcano) to the southeast

Looking back at the eastern rim of the cinder cone

We made it back to the parking lot about an hour after we started. Shedding our jackets in the car, we then hiked the 0.2-mile Crater Vent trail (one-way) down to the bottom of Capulin. 

RVs in the parking lot 105 feet above us

We returned to the visitor center at 10:15AM to get my passport stamps. (New Mexico is part of the Southwest Region, so now we're up to 4 regions - woohoo!) After looking at the exhibits inside, we headed outside to hike a short ways down the Lava Flow Trail to get one last pic of the volcano. 

By 10:45AM, we were back on the road for the 120-mile drive to our final new-to-us unit for this road trip, Fort Union National Monument. We arrived at the park just before 12:30PM. 

☑ #190

In order to establish a military presence in the Southwest and protect American interests in the newly acquired New Mexico Territory, the first Fort Union was built in 1851 near where the Mountain and Cimarron Routes of the Santa Fe Trail rejoined. In 1861, a second star-shaped earthwork fort was constructed about a mile east to better defend against Confederate attack during the Civil War. In March 1862, Union forces defeated Confederate troops at Glorieta Pass near Santa Fe (and present-day Pecos National Historical Park), stopping the Confederate incursion into New Mexico. 

Construction of the third fort began in November 1862. The largest fort west of the Mississippi River, this final Fort Union included a military post, quartermaster's depot, arsenal, and hospital. However, with the cessation of the Indian wars and the replacement of commerce on the Santa Fe Trail by railroads, the need for Fort Union also diminished, leading to its closure in 1891. The ruins of the fort were established as a national monument in 1956.

Due to a major water leak in the building, the visitor center was closed, but the rangers were set up to assist visitors outside. They even had some of the passport stamps available and were kind enough to allow me inside to get a few more that I knew about from the NPTC Master Database. Then we used up the last of our sandwich fixings for lunch in the picnic area. 

After lunch, we started on the self-guided walking tour of Fort Union, or more accurately, what was left of it. We actually made our way around the grounds in reverse order because our first priority was the port-a-potties located behind the prison. (The restrooms were another casualty of the water issue in the visitor center.) Altogether we spent about 1.5-2 hours here.

Adobe ruins of the officers' quarters and company quarters with the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the distance

Watch out for rattlesnakes!

Married enlisted men's quarters and the post hospital in the distance

Even though grass has grown over the trail, you can still see traces of where countless wagons scarred the ground more than a century ago.

Quartermaster depot behind us

Mechanic's corral

Storehouses

Looking through the storehouse walls

Storehouses

Officers' quarters

Our final destination for the day was Pecos National Historical Park. We were here with the boys in July 2016, so R and I didn't revisit the ancestral sites of the Pecos Pueblo and the mission church this time. Instead we went to the Trading Post, which was not open to the public then, and spent about 20 minutes going through the exhibits (and getting passport stamps).

Established in 1858 by Polish immigrant Martin Kozlowski, the trading post building was one of the last stops on the trail before weary travelers reached Sante Fe. During the Civil War, the building was used as a hospital for Union soldiers during the Battle of Glorieta Pass. In the 1920s, the building became the headquarters for Tex Austin's Forked Lightning Ranch, a dude ranch where guests could experience the "Wild West". And in the 1940s, Buddy Fogelson and his wife, Oscar-winning actress Greer Garson, owned the ranch and raised Santa Gertrudis cattle here. In 1991, Garson sold the ranch parcel to The Conservation Fund, which, in turn, donated it to the National Park Service.

Except for our slight detour in Kansas, we have been following the
Santa Fe Trail from Independence

Then we headed to the main visitor center for more stamps (extra unit - Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area!) and a quick zip through the exhibits before it closed at 4:00PM. 

Today's progress towards our 2024 Silver Master Traveler Award*:

 

    Units: 28

    Stamps: 74

    Regions: 4

Once back on I-25 South, we skipped Santa Fe and drove straight through to Albuquerque, where we checked into our hotel in Old Town near the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center. We enjoyed a delicious dinner at Sadie's of New Mexico. Fair warning - New Mexican chiles really pack a punch! 

Enchilada/tamale/carne adovada, carne adovada, sopaipillas 

310 miles, 4.75h

*updated to include the New Philadelphia NHS and Amache NHS stamps received by mail on 6/20