2025-9-25 Valley of Fires Recreation Area N.M.

Our original plan was to head north to Chama to camp and do the loop around Pagosa Springs and Durango in a daytrip. That would involve crossing the Continental Divide several times and Elaine just doesn't do real well in higher altitudes. So......... We left the Santa Fe and the Rodeo de Santa Fe where we camped and headed south to Valley of Fires Recreation Area near Carrizozo N.M. That's one of the really nice parts of not making advance reservations, it's so easy to just change your mind about "where to next"

 Valley of Fires is a BLM recreational area in New Mexico (not to be confused with the Valley of Fires State Park in Nevada). I stayed there with my friends Birdie and Mary Jane on our way to Arizona quite some time ago and checked it out again on a day trip from Ruidoso. Last time we just paid the camphost. This time was more confusing. Now you can make reservations but some are first come-first served. Elaine's site #6 was first come-first served. My site #7 had to be reserved the first night but was first come-first served the second night. Then to add further confusion, they have a new system called Scan/Pay. Elaine couldn't get that to work so she went online and booked which of course charged her a booking fee. At least that was off set by the America the Beautiful Senior pass which gave her half off. I did manage to figure out the Scan/Pay including the half off.

Next challenge was trying to get level. Be prepared for that. Elaine has a trailer so front to back leveling is no big issue but side to side was a real challenge which took both of us. The driver's side was considerably lower so we had to keep adding the lego blocks but we got it. I would have preferred to park going the other direction but I have jacks and I won't lift the back end off the ground. Front is no bigger. After several moves forward and back as well as closer and further front the edge. I got it leveled okay. I got my water connected and running. Elaine's water just gushed out of a valve on the bottom rather than coming out the spigot. We tried everything. Finally, we tracked down the camphost who told us that both 5 and 6 valves were broken. Would have been nice to have a sign posted so we could have put her in a different site. Whoo! Time to take a break. She doesn't travel with water in her tank as trailer tanks are notorious for not being strongly attached. She had some bottles of water and used the shower house so we crossed that hurdle too.

This is not the best place to camp when it's hot because it gets very hot but the weather was great while we were there. The views are very unique.

The view over the volcanic rock is very unique.

Restrooms/showers across the road. There is also a Visitor Center open during the day.

Elaine does not like spiders so wasn't thrilled with this nice big sign.

This is the real reason people come here.......the trail across the volcano. Elaine said it was too hot but I said it won't be too hot tomorrow morning!

And so, the next morning we set out to do the Malpais Nature Trail.

The scenery is just so unique here. There was not a huge volcano erupting and shooting lava into the air. This was a much slower process of lava oozing up along a huge length of land.

It's amazing how the vegetation managed to either survive or ....

grow on the volcanic rock after it cooled.

This was a crack that formed. I should have mentioned that there is a trail of either concrete sidewalk or raised boards that you must stay on. Volcanic rock is very sharp.

There were several benches along the way and the trail is well worth your time for this very unique land perspective.

I could see my RV from along one of the pathways.

Looking down from above to a covered bench area. 

In spite of the challenges of our arrival, we had a very enjoyable relaxing time here. We also walked around the whole campground the next morning. It's a very unique place. Be sure you check out the tent areas at the back of the campground if you have this place on your bucket list.

Okay, so the next decision was "where next"? We were definitely thinking about Ruidoso which was about a hour and a half away. We have a good friend there camphosting at the place we stayed last year. We even called about an RV park we knew would have room. And then we checked the weather....rain in Ruidoso. Much as we hated to miss a chance to see Brenda, we decided to pass on Ruidoso this time.

Another issue came up while we were here. My slide went out fine but when I happened to walk around that way later on, I discovered that the back lower track was missing a bunch of screws and had moved a bit. Yikes! I carefully brought it back in and decided then and there that it was not going back out until I got it repaired. Fortunately, my RV is completely usable with the slide in. Okay, you can't turn the recliners into a bed but I very rarely ever need to do that. 

So where did we go next??? Stay tuned for the next post.

Valley of Fire NM

Our next stay was at Valley of Fire BLM Park which is 4 miles west of Carrizozo, New Mexico on Hwy 380. After 380 and 70 (to Ruidoso) separated, the road was a bit rough for quite a ways. We ran into a heavy rainstorm that slowed us to a crawl but fortunately it only lasted only about 10 minutes.

Valley of Fires is a nice park with water and electric hookups, covered picnic tables, and garbage cans at each site. They also have nice tent areas. Mary Jane and I shared a double space which was no problem. They were having a water leak problem while we were there so the water was off most of the time but they turned it on each morning so you could fill your tanks.

There is a visitor's center and gift store and a couple of great camphosts.

These are the tent sites with parking places and fenced areas for each site.

The tent areas sit lower than the RV spaces and are more sheltered.

In addition to being centrally located for visiting numerous places within an hours drive, the big draw is the Malpais Nature Trail. The geology in this area is really unique. You drive across the high desert plain and then you come upon this volcanic flow. This is probably the youngest lava flow in the continental U.S. as it is only 1500 to 2000 years old.

The lava spewed from volcanic vents in the northern end on at least two occasions and flowed south along the floor of th Tularosa Basin for 44 miles. It covered the valley floor and occastionally would surround areas of higher ground forming islands of older rocks called kipukas. The campground is on one of the larger kipukas and is composed of sandstone and soil.

There is a really nice trail leading out into the volcanic area. The smooth or ropey-looking lava is called Pahoehoe. There are also small areas of a'a (pronounced ah--ah. The lava is more than 160 feet thick near the center.

We didn't see any of the Barbary sheep or mule deer that live on the lava flow but Claudia saw a ring-tailed cat and I saw this little guy.

This is a great example of the ropey lava.

These are older rocks surrounded by the lava.

This was a nice place to camp in spite of the water problems. Since we could run off our water tanks, it really didn't bother us much. It was nice and quiet.