El Morro and El Mal Pais, New Mexico

El Morro has Indian petroglyphs and carvings from every other explorer who passed by... Spaniards from the 1600s (earliest was 1605) and Americans in the 1700s and 1800s. There is a water reservoir at the base of the cliff which drew travelers, and boys will be boys carving their names in whatever is handy. The bluff is very pretty, hiking up it one finds an interior boxed canyon and on top some Anasazi ruins from roughly 1300.

El Mal Pais, or the bad country, is the remains of a massive lava flow from long ago. Rough black lava lies across enormous stretches with vegetation fighting to grow. The park also includes some attractive sandstone bluffs and a large natural rock arch. Adjacent to El Mal Pais is the Bandera Volcano and Ice Caves which is a private park around the Bandera Volcana rim and with a collapsed lava tube which forms a natural cave which remains 31F (-1C) year around with a thick (estimated 20ft) ice layer. There are 29 old volcanos in the area. Bandera was one of the largest, the crater is 1400ft across and 800ft deep, elevation approximately 8600ft. Bandera blew around 10000 years ago leaving a 23 mile lava flow.

I visited the weekend prior to a conference (HPC Users Group) in Albuquerque.
I also visited the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert in Arizona on this trip.