We arrived in Grants, NM on Monday, April 19, in early afternoon and after setting up we hopped in the truck to see what we could see in the few daylight hours left. We headed off for an area south of Grants called El Malpais. Mal meaning "bad" in Spanish and Pais "country or lands" so essentially the area was the "badlands". It's called this because of the harsh terrain caused by the eruption of Bandera Volcano about 10,000 years ago, lots of big piles of black volcanic (very sharp!) rock.
This first day we didn't have enough time to explore it very thoroughly so we settled for stopping at one of the trailheads for the Zuni-Acoma Trail. The trail is named after two local Indian tribes as it follows the route that they had marked with rock cairns (piles) over 1000 yrs ago between their two pueblos (villages) and has become a part of the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail (a 3000 mile trail from Canada to Mexico). We were only going to hike a small part of it today (maybe a 1/2 mile or so) just enough to give Dude a good workout. Poor dog has been such a good traveler but we've spent too much time in the truck lately and he's needing some fresh air (us too!). After the initial concrete path to the info board we had to cross a rather treacherous area covered with lava flow and it was not easy. No broken bones tho' as we hit the open prairie. As we walked along we noticed many things like a pile of elk scat (love that poop!) and big ant hills. Dude was having a great time, sniffing here and sniffing there. We had gone perhaps a quarter mile when I noticed one other thing that had me concerned.....big black thunderclouds building in the not too far distance that might drop a bucketful of rain on our heads. We turned around immediately and headed back to Bruzer. As we walked we saw lightning in the clouds and knew it was going to be a good storm. We made it back to the truck without getting wet luckily but when we returned to camp, the downpour started before we could get inside. Just a little damp, that's all, before we were cozy and warm and listening to the rain drum down on the 5th wheel along with the boom of the thunder.