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Visited: March 2018
Duration: 1-2 hours
Accomodations: None. This was an afternoon stop between New Mexico and Texas.
Capulin Volcano erupted over 60,000 years ago producing 2 kinds of volcanic products: cinders/scoria (frothy chunks of volcanic rock) and lava flows.
Today you can walk trails on the the volcano and venture down into its crater. Capulin National Monument offers 5 trails (we were not able to do any because they were closed the day we were there because of strong winds).
Crater Rim Trail: 1 mile loop paved
Crater Vent Trail: .2 mile one way paved
Nature Walk: 10 min walk paved from Visitor Center to prairie
Lava Flow Trail: 1 mile loop unpaved
Boca Trail: 2 mile loop unpaved
We stopped off at the Visitor Center and grabbed some Junior Ranger books and headed to the top. There is a nice road that was open to drive up to the top of the volcano. The benchmarks at the top had a few of the answers we needed in our books. Most of the other answers came from the visitor center and the short film. Up at the top were great views and the crater. Check it out.
Back down to the Visitor Center and we have earned more badges for this trip. They even let the kids wear the Ranger hats to get sworn in as Junior Rangers!
Cancellations and badges and we are off to Texas, yee Haw!
Great stop to break up the drive time to the next destination! Have you been to Capulin? Did you like it? We lava it!!
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