El Malpais

A couple weeks ago we did our first post pandemic vacation/photo excursion to New Mexico.  It was great escaping the cage we’ve been in for so long now.  As nice as it was to be away and find opportunity to stretch skills with new subject matter, it was also revealing how much was lost during the pandemic.  Over the past 15 months I have found a comfort zone making contemplative images in an urban environment, on the other hand my compositional skills used to make images in natural spaces has atrophied.  Add in that many of us perhaps are packing the Covid “19” along for our excursions and I admittedly had some trouble finding a comfort zone while making images.  Looking back, I realize I created as many ideas for potential projects or places scouted in search of better light as I did images.  But I created images none the less and not all of them suck.

With this post I am going to start off with the visit to El Malpais National Monument.  El Malpais translates roughly into “The Badlands” not to be confused with the Badlands National Park in South Dakota.  I love both places and it strikes me that El Malpais may be on a trajectory to join Badlands as a full fledged national park in the not so distant future. 

The Badlands of South Dakota were created via the erosion of sand, clay and silt from the land, whereas El Malpais was created from the bubbling of lava to the surface to form a vast lava field roughly the shape of triangle, 15 miles long on all three sides.  The lava itself is not a result of any single seismic event, rather the field is composed of several flows ranging from antiquity of ~115,00 years old to relatively recency, ~2,500 years old. 

Augmenting the lava flows and formations, on the east side of the monument are tall sandstone cliffs.  For part of the 20 mile drive, the road follows the top of the cliff line with views of the lava field, crosses the continental divide before eventually descending to flow level with the cliffs above.  Contained in the adjourning El Malpais wilderness area to the east is the La Ventana natural Arch which is easily accessed.  At the south end of the east rim is a short hike to highlight some of the different types of lava formations.

While we did not make it over to the west side of the monument it features the crest of El Calderon, the dormant volcano which is the source of the lava flows as well as several lave tubes or caves which house large bat colonies.  The tubes were closed due to the pandemic.

A slideshow of images plays below.  Images begin with overlooks from the cliffs to the lava field below.  Along the way there is an abandoned adobe which captured my attention.  After descending to the level of the lava field, there are images of the cliffs and La Ventana Arch.  By the time I got to the lava field hike, the sun was lost and the images are a bit flat as a result.  All images were shot as a simple three frame HDR merged and converted to black and white in lightroom.

More from the trip over the next four or five posts!