Our problems with connectivity continued and we finally gave it up until we returned home. We are now actually parked at Wilderness Lakes in Menifee but tonight we are staying at our mobilehome in San Jacinto where we have FIOS and it works like a charm!
Last Wednesday we were climbing around on ancient lava beds that were created when the Bandera Volcano in what is now New Mexico erupted around 10,000 years ago. It's in El Malpais National Monument, we just went a little further this day then we had the first day we visited. We drove on past the Zuni-Acoma Trail about 15 miles and came to a place called El Calderon. We stopped to look and stretch our legs. It was quite an impressive hole in the ground, again created by a lava tube that had collapsed. The three of us climbed down in and pondered the wisdom of trying to crawl thru the lava tube (and sharp rock) to the other side where we saw light coming in. Our better sense won out and we left the tube-crawling to a younger and fitter couple. Hope they made it! We didn't stick around to find out.
Our next stop was the Bandera Volcano and Ice Cave. The crater left by the eruption of the volcano is approx. 1200 ft across and 800 ft deep. It's one of the best examples of an erupted volcano in the country and one of the most accessible. We paid our fees and started our climb behind several groups of elementary students. It was good exercise, not too difficult, a gentle incline all the way up and very different scenery with the lava rock all around. Once up there, with a few pictures taken, we left the students behind and headed down. The best part of our visit here was the ice cave. Once we had climbed to the crater and back down, we were directed to another trail that would take us down to the ice cave. The scenery on both sides of this trail was very forbidding-looking. Lots of lava rock twisted around Ponderosa pine, cypress and juniper made it look like a dangerous place to explore. A place where it would be easy to break a bone or a head for that matter. The steps down to the Ice Cave were the worst part of the trail. They were almost straight down and built so long ago that they were uneven and treacherous. As we approached the bottom, it became colder and colder until....there it was!....a layer of ice on the floor of the cave that was 25 ft thick. It was green from algae and smooth so that I wanted to ice skate on it. Ice skating not allowed!! Some icicles were hanging from the ceiling of the cave and there were black charcoal marks on the celing indicating that fires had been burnt in the cave at one time. In the 1800s there was an outpost here and they used to keep their perishables in the cave. In the 1950s, a nearby hunting lodge kept their beer on ice in the cave. Pretty handy place!! We got our best exercise of the day just climbing back up those wretched stairs out of the Ice Cave.
We ended out outing for the day by having a picnic lunch at El Calderon in strong winds that wanted to blow our lunches away. We persevered though, ate, talked with the sheriffs who had just driven up to make sure that we weren't going to get lost in the wilderness and fall in a lava tube and then headed back to the 5th wheel.