When our plan for a campground doesn't work out . . .

After three days, we decided it was time to leave our delightful camp site at the first-come-first-served Rob Jagger BLM campground east of Ruidoso, New Mexico. Our plan was to move only 29 miles, to a campground at the Valley of Fires federal recreation area. This was a well-reviewed campground with 13 first-come-first-served camp sites. We are experienced campers, so we know that you should show up early in the day to get one of those sites. Traveling in the middle of the week in April and arriving before noon, we just assumed that one of those sites would be open. We were wrong. Every one of the ten reservable and 13 first-come-first-served sites were full. What will we do when our plan for a campground doesn't work out? Well, we could still take the hike in the recreation area.

The Malpais Nature Trail is a handicap-accessible trail that winds through the black lava that emerged from vents in the valley floor 5,000 years ago. This is one of the youngest and best preserved lava flows in the United States.

This lava flow is 44 miles long, and varies from two to five miles wide. Because of it's large size, we could see the black lava field from our mountain hike a couple days ago. Here's a picture we took from that earlier hike with Mark pointing to the Valley of Fires that was miles away at the time. 

Today we are right in the middle of all that black lava. While the smooth trail makes walking through this bumpy landscape easy, you are encouraged to leave the trail and walk through the lava as well.

The layer of lava is deep, averaging 45 feet in thickness. Soil has blown on top of this deep layer of basalt, so that plants now can survive in this barren landscape. The bright pink wildflowers made a beautiful contrast to their black surroundings.

We were just a day or two early to see the strawberry hedgehog cactus blooms. A relative of the claret cup cactus that we have been enjoying for weeks, this cactus has more needles, and a strawberry-colored bloom that is just waiting to pop open.

A couple birders were taking pictures of a nearby bird, so Denisa felt obliged to take one as well. They reported that we were looking at a black-throated sparrow. This bird is characterized by two bold white stripes on the face and a triangular black patch on the chin. That description sounded a little like Denisa is becoming a seasoned birder.

The next bird is characterized by a long pointed beak and dark beady eyes and kinda brown feathers. Now you recognize that her description skills reveal that she is not a birder--just someone that likes to take pictures of birds.

Between the birds and flowers and interesting lava formations, we have wandered into another of God's wonders--even if we don't have a place to camp tonight.

The lava is sharp, but Mark can still climb on top of a lava ridge for a picture.

When our plan for a campground doesn't work out . . . we try to have a back-up plan. This is a very remote area, so the back-up plan involved traveling another 51 miles. This second option involved driving a half-mile off the highway on a gravel road.

We had wanted to make a stop in the Cibola National Forest, so we drove on to the Gallinas Group Site. No hook-ups of any type here, but it is a quiet and peaceful stop at the foot of the mountains to our west.

When our plan for a first-come-first-served campground doesn't work out, experienced campers know to have a back-up plan. We were glad to spend two nights boon-docking here, running our generator when needed. With cool temperatures, spring is a great time to stay in campgrounds like this. We're a little glad that the crowded campground at Valley of Fires didn't work out after all.