By Cheri Sicard
After spending the last six months exploring here, I have come to think of New Mexico as the land of otherworldly landscapes. I talked about this in my article about City of Rocks State Park, and I encountered it again at Bandelier National Monument (story coming soon), and at the topic of this post, the Valley of Fires National Recreation area. And all these odd landscapes are distinctly different from one another!
From the campground at Valley of Fires National Recreation Area just west of Carrizozo, New Mexico, you are treated to a panoramic view of the unusual black lava fields below including pressure ridges, collapsed bubbles, and lava tubes.
The paved 1-mile Malpais Nature Trail, which starts in the campground, winds through this scenic vista. As the BLM manages this area, you are allowed to wander off the paved trail, but if you do, be sure to wear good hiking boots—the lava can be sharp and not unlike walking on broken glass.
Thought to be the youngest lava flow in the United States, volcanic vents in the earth’s floor at the northern end of the Tularosa Basin formed this unusual landscape about 2,000-5,000 years ago. The black lava is more than 160 feet thick at its thickest point and covers 125 square miles!
You’ll find ample wildlife viewing here, including various lizards, coyotes, cottontail rabbits, and more. Interestingly, many dark-skinned and dark-haired animals live here as they have adapted their colorations to blend in with the black lava.
Bird watchers will delight in the soaring acrobatics of birds of prey like turkey vultures, ravens, golden eagles, and red-tailed hawks. Great horned and burrowing owls, road runners, quail, gnatcatchers, towhees, cactus wrens, and sparrows also call the Malpais home.
Nearby Carrizozo
The tiny historic town of Carrizozo is just down the road. Founded in 1905, the town provided the main railroad access for Lincoln County. However, with the declining relevance of the railroad, the population of the town has also declined.
It looks like it is trying to have an artistic renaissance, but it still has a way to go. Nonetheless, it’s worth a visit. The free museum, housed in the town’s former frozen food locker building, is well done and gives a good overview of the area and its cultures through the decades.
Also, you will find a surprisingly outstanding restaurant in town. Rosey’s Pizza serves up excellent pizzas, pasta, salads, and more in its charming dining room nestled in a former residence on the town’s main street.
RV camping at Valley of Fires National Recreation Area
The campground offers tent sites, boondocking sites, and electric and water sites. The latter will set you back $18 a night ($9 with the National Parks Senior Pass). There is a dump station and potable water on site, as well as clean, hot showers.
Campsites are in view of each other but spread far enough apart to allow for plenty of privacy.
Do your grocery shopping before heading to Valley of Fires. Carrizozo has no supermarkets, only a convenience store and a dollar store. The nearest supermarkets are more than an hour away.
The only downside to this campground, and it may or may not be seasonal, is that it was excessively windy. In summer, temperatures will also be HOT. But when I visited in spring, temperatures were perfect with warm days and cool nights.
Learn more about Valley of Fires Recreation Area here.
RELATED
- RVing the incredible City of Rocks State Park and nearby Faywood Hot Springs
- RVing New Mexico’s historic Pancho Villa State Park
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We drove from Tularosa to Moriarty passing through Carrizozo in early April. 30 mph base west winds with 60 mph gusts, all crosswinds. One very strong gust broke a hood latch on our Freightliner Super C. It was 29 degrees with 30 mph wind in Moriarty that night. Fortunately we were camped at Sierra Blanca Brewery.
Corrizozo is slightly over 5000 elevation. It is high desert with strong winds and wide temperature swings. Interesting fact, the town name was derived from the Spanish name for the reed grass, “carrizo,” that the cattle grazed on. The “zo” at the end was used to indicate an abundance of grass thus, Carrizozo.
Be careful, they call it the land of enchantment but, it is the land of entrapment. I spent the better part of a year just tooling around NM, brought my daughter out of NY, and Bob’s your uncle I’m a resident.
We stayed at the KOA in Grants, NM for several days. The grand kids were fascinated by the landscape, the volcanic rocks, etc. They even had a nature trail that we walked and used that as our science lesson for the day. NM was a great state to stay for homeschooling!
We have visited Valley of Fires in fall in absolutely gorgeous weather. But we stayed at BLM’s nearby Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, which has very few campsites and even fewer with electrical hookups. But the abundance of fascinating petroglyphs on the boulders along the mile-long hiking trail was well-worth the overnight stay!
Thank you, Cheri! 🙂 This sounds like a great place to visit! Thanks, too, for the warning of high temperatures. Have a great week and safe travels! 🙂
I grew up in NM. I’ve been to every corner of that state from Shiprock to Jal, from the Capulin Volcano to Antelope Wells in the boot heel hunting Javelina and everywhere between! I’ve been to areas so remote, you couldn’t receive a radio station signal, FM or AM! (out by Amistad). It’s the 5th largest state in the lower 48 with only about 2 million people. Lowest Elevation is 3800 ft. and highest is over 13,000 ft. NM has the most harsh extreme conditions year around except for September, and beauty beyond belief.
Watch for rattlesnakes if you walk off the trail at Valley of Fires! My husband saw the snake before I walked in front of it. When the cacti bloom, the flowers are stunning against the lava rock.