new mexico

Home, sweet home. After five weeks on the road it was nice to roll across the state line on Tuesday morning. We weren't ready to put an end to our adventure yet though, and took a little side trip to Capulin Volcano, just east of Raton. As we drove, you could see the features of the volcanic field rising in the distance.

raton-clayton volcanic field

We ate a quick lunch, made from our remaining food stores, and then went to check out the couple of trails at the monument. We hiked the first trail, winding through the cinders. The second trail took us through one of the vent areas around the volcano. As we hiked the Boca Trail my heels started to blister since I hadn't taken the time to find socks in our overstuffed car. The clear solution to prevent further blistering, and the one that was employed on this hike, was to start running. Running on my toes meant that my heels weren't rubbing. Perfect. We saw an awesome trail, we got some running in, and, for the most part, my feet were happy.

With that out of our system, we drove up to the crater of the Capulin. We hiked around the rim of the crater and then down into the vent. Looking out from the rim trail we could see for miles. The volcanic field was somewhat moderate, but beautiful none-the-less. We could see storms forming in the distance, and so we took that as our sign to get down to lower elevations. 

inside the vent

At that point we were exhausted. We tabled our plan to go to Bandelier National Monument and instead made the push for home. As nice as it would have been to get one more tent night in, it was fabulous to sleep in our own bed after being gone for so long. Ah, home, sweet home.