Lava Flow

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 0.8 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 7180 - 7273 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 30 mins.
Trailhead: Visitor Center
Fee: $20/vehicle
Attractions: volcano lava flow

Capulin Volcano National Monument near Capulin, New Mexico, currently has 5 developed trails of which this post is for the Lava Flow trail. Starting near the Visitor Center the trail travels a loop that leads across an area where lava had flowed down from the crater of the Capulin Volcano approximately 60,000 years ago.

Gran Quivira Ruins

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 0.6 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 6500 - 6554 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 45 mins.
Trailhead: Visitor Center
Fee: none
Attractions: Spanish mission, pueblo

The Gran Quivira Ruins are located 25 miles south of Mountainair, New Mexico and are part of the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument along with the Abó Ruins, 9 miles west of Mountainair, and the Quarai Ruins, 8 miles north of Mountainair. The grayish-green colored limestone from which the ruins are constructed contrasts with the more reddish sandstone construction found at the other sites. Another big difference between Gran Quivira and the other sites is that it wasn't built near a source of water like a stream or spring and yet it was the largest of the Salinas pueblos.

Abó Ruins

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 0.8 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 6034 - 6061 feet
Cellphone: 0-3 bars
Time: 45 mins.
Trailhead: Abo Visitor Center
Fee: none
Attractions: Spanish mission, pueblo

The Abó Ruins are part of the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument that is located in the area around Mountainair, New Mexico. It is one of three Indian pueblos where Spanish priests built missions upon their arrival in the 1600's. The other two sites are the Quarai Ruins, that are about 8 miles north of Mountainair, and the Gran Quivira Ruins that are 25 miles to the south.

Quarai Mission Ruins

Rating: 
Round Trip Distance: 0.5 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 6609 - 6640 feet
Cellphone: 0 bars
Time: 45 mins.
Trailhead: Quarai Visitor Center
Fee: none
Attractions: Mission and pueblo ruins

The Quarai (pronounced: KWA-rye.) Mission Ruins are located in Punta de Agua (translation: point of water or water point), New Mexico and are one of the three Spanish Mission/Indian Pueblo sites that are part of the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument. The oldest part of the pueblo dates to the 1300s but appears to have been abandoned for several hundred years until just before the Spaniards arrival in 1626 by which time the pueblo had grown to a considerable size of 400 to 600 people. The pueblo was abandoned once again in the 1670s due to drought and famine and never reoccupied.