I knew it was going to be cold on Saturday and there was a chance of thunderstorms so instead of hiking I did a little sightseeing. About an hour North of Alamogordo, in a town called Carrizozo, are fields of lava.
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| Valley of the Fires Recreation Area |
Over 45 miles and 165 feet thick, the lava originated from several nearby volcanoes and now resembles black rock overgrown with cactus and bushes. In Carrizozo is a recreation area where you can walk through the fields, but it was even colder and winder there and I wasn't about to get out of my car.
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| Mountains in the distance - these have snow, only an hour North of Alamogordo |
The best views of the lava are not from the park, but from the side of the road a bit farther down. Unfortunately my camera died before I got there.
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| Heap o' lava |
Later in the day, after I was back in the toasty camper, it snowed. Big wet flakes that didn't stick to the ground, but snow nonetheless. When I arrived here last Sunday it was as good as it gets - sunny, 80, dry. Tuesday a storm came through blowing sustained winds of 20mph, gusts much higher. So high in fact on Thursday the wind blew my camper about 15 feet into a barrier behind me. Now it is Sunday morning and the sun is just coming up. It's 30 degrees but it's supposed to reach 70 today. What a crazy place.
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