Thenaturalmedic Adventures
Hello there, and thanks so much for joining us here! You are probably wondering what this podcast is all about? In this podcast, we will talk about all sorts of outdoor adventures, but primarily, for now, we will focus on hiking and backpacking. No other outdoor adventure is so accessible to so many people! So please join us as we talk about how to hike/backpack and learn how to hike any length trail from your local neighborhood parks to those long trails such as the Appalachian and others worldwide! Remember... "in every walk with nature; one receives far more than he seeks... - John Muir " See you on the trail!
Thenaturalmedic Adventures
Exploring the Mysteries of El Calderon and New Mexico's Lava Tube Caves
Get ready to unlock the secrets of New Mexico's El Calderon area as we journey through the mesmerizing landscape of El Malpais. What fascinating life forms thrive in the shadowy depths of the lava tube caves, and how do they survive in such unique conditions? You'll discover answers as we trek from Highway 53 to the trailhead, making intriguing stops at the Junction Cave and the Bat Cave. As we explore these dark wonders, we'll unravel the mystery of cave-adapted species and delve into the critical issue of white-nose syndrome impacting the Brazilian or Mexican free-tail bats that call this place home.
But the adventure doesn't end there. Allow me to share my exhilarating hike across the dormant Cinder Cone volcano, where the captivating vistas of New Mexico unfold before our eyes. Embrace the thrill and rarity of exploring such extraordinary natural wonders as I recount my hiking impressions and reflect on the magic of the experience. Engage with us by sharing your thoughts, questions, and even your own stories. Subscribe for more adventures, because this is just the beginning of our journey into the wild unknown.
Okay, I'm at El Malpai, El Calderon hike here, driving in off of Highway 53. No, I'm not wearing my seatbelt, but I am going very slow down a dirt road, gravel road. It is very windy today. I'm at the trailhead now of the El Calderon, which is located I hope you can see it right here on the map. Here is Grants, new Mexico. You drive down 53 and you get to the El Calderon. Yesterday I was at El Morro, which I am staying there at a cabin in an RV park right now. I'm going to go check out El Calderon, which has an old volcano that you can as a volcano center cone. You can walk around. There's some caves, lava tubes and stuff. Should be a pretty cool trip. So I hope you'll join me as I go through El Calderon at El Malpais. Okay, apologies for the wind. We've got a junction here. Junction cave is .1 mile, so a tenth of a mile to the left. The Bat Cave is .7. The entire loop trail is 3 miles. Maybe that's the start of the loop trail. I'm gonna go this way to the junction cave and check it out. I've got a headlamp and give a little introduction into lava tube caving, so let's go. Okay, I'm at the mouth of Junction Cave. It's not very far from the parking lot but it is close to the public. There is a gated area which I'm assuming that's the main part of the cave, because the other side behind me of where I'm filming looks like you can walk through that tube right there Kind of gives you an intro to lava tube caving. Lots of interesting species in here. Talk about those in a second. Hey, by the way, if you're liking this video, smash that like to let YouTube know that you approved my content and that gets out to other people. Thanks. According to the self-guided tour information, they did a 1995 study of the caves in the El Malpai, and Junction Cave had more cave-adapted species than any other cave surveyed at
Speaker 1:the time. Most of the life is small to microscopic lives in dark corners, under rocks and deep cracks they found. The life is divided into four categories. You have accidentals, troglosines, troglophiles and troglobytes. Let's get deeper in the cave and talk
Speaker 1:about those. I'm standing in this upper portion of Junction Cave. This is the only part that's open to the public. I was just looking at it a second ago, not realizing what I was looking at. This is what it looks like to the outside. Just a small little tube. Here you can see the rocks closest to me. I have that bumpy appearance, kind of look almost like pumice or almost like steel wool or something like that. That's because their texture is very rough, so I can step over here without falling down. Yeah, their texture is very rough. I probably should have had my glove zone down here a little rougher than I expected, but you can go right out here to exit the cave. Pretty neato. So let's talk about let's get out of the cave first, then we'll talk about the different types of life that are found down here. How's that sound? And this is looking behind me as I entered the little part of the tube here. So pretty wild. So if you want to experience some lava tube caving, this cave is open all year round for this particular little section of it and you can come see what lava tube caving is about. I'm planning on coming down here and doing another video during that time when the caves open
Speaker 1:back up. The lava tube caves open back up, which will be in April. Okay, right here you have an area called the double sinks. You have a big sinkhole lava tube thing over here. Take a look. Sorry about the wind again. Whoa, so you got a lava tube there and you have one on the other side of the path. Let's take a look at it. Whoa, that's crazy. All right, pretty amazing spot
Speaker 1:right here. This particular lava tube is known as the bat cave. I I don't know if Batman's in there or not. He might be taking a rest from all the criminals that he's been fighting. But I digress. Somewhere between 1,000 to 100,000 bats are found in this Bat Cave. They fly out during the summer months or warmer months to eat insects, mostly Brazilian Freetail or Mexican free-tail bats. Heard them called both. Unfortunately, they're fighting a disease throughout the country called white-nose syndrome, which has taken the lives of millions of bats across the country. These bats, of course, consume millions of insects that are in the agricultural fields in the surrounding area, so the impact that white-nose syndrome could have on the bats, by eliminating them as part of the food web, could be detrimental
Speaker 1:to agriculture. It's a good time to talk about the four different types of cave life which I mentioned earlier when I was at Junction Cave. I'm guessing Junction Cave is so named because of the junction that it has. So you have troglosines, accidentals, troglophiles and troglobites, so troglosines pardon me, I'm reading this off of the NPS page here. They live above ground, do not depend on the cave for survival, so that would be bats and mice. Bats take shelter in there, but they don't use the cave as survival other than for shelter. Mice come in there to seek some things out, but they leave. Troglophiles may live their entire lives in the cave but are not fully adapted to the cave environment, such as spiders and beetles. Troglobites live their entire life and completely dependent on the cave, such as mites and certain types
Speaker 1:of insects. I think that covers everything. Yeah, so right here you have a lava trench, everything, yeah, so right here you have a lava trench. Oh, the wind. I'll try to stand over here to the side. We've got a lava trench here. They're forming the same way as a lava tube. Just the roof collapses and you can see there's a lot more vegetation in the bottom because water collects there Allows those trees to grow bigger in the bottom rather than on
Speaker 1:the edge. Okay, right here there is a sign. You can go down this old road here back to the parking area. It's one mile if you go that way. I think according to my Garland watch, I have been going about 1.6. So I I'm making about a three mile loop, but you can go to Cinder Cone, which is 0.2 miles, this way. And what would be the point of going to El Calderon without checking out the Cinder Cone, because you can actually walk around it and do the things. So let's go check it out. Okay, el Calderon is right there. Climb up it in a minute, but it's two o'clock or that's right around
Speaker 1:two o'clock. Get some food here. I got a little lunch on the run Tuna, salad, crackers, fruit cookie from Bumble Bee with a spork. Concluded how nice, all righty. So I'm right here at the cinder cone. You can tell it's a little bit different up here because the soil is all black, it's just broken down
Speaker 1:lava basalt. You can go this way to get a view of this, of the crater. It's one tenth of a mile and you can return to the parking area, which is 1.3 miles. I'm going to get a view of the crater because I want to. I'm here, let's take a look, then we'll go back to the parking lot. Over there you got the chain of craters, I'm pretty sure, which is a backcountry byway not
Speaker 1:always accessible. Far over there, more of el malpais, you have an intermingling of BLS and National Park Service lands here. I'm just walking around the rim and, if you can see over here, my assumption is that El Calderon was more like that mountain straight ahead there is that El Calderon was more like that mountain straight ahead there through the trees. Instead today we're walking around the rim and just a big crater, because whenever it was an active volcano it just blew its top and all this magma all over this is now El Malpais. Here's another trail marker Just blew up over the whole area. You can see over there where you walk down. Look at the trees there, but now it's more of a cinder cone rather than actually a
Speaker 1:mountain top. But how often do you get to walk around the top of an extinct or dormant volcano? Not very often. Only other place in New Mexico, only other place I really know of that you can do it in the median area, is Capulet National Monument, which is up in northeastern New Mexico. So apologies again for the wind, I believe, over here to the right past, this one that's closest to us, the one that's closest to us, I believe, is Twin Craters, which is these two mountains over here. Then we have Lost Woman Crater, then spanning back over here is Private Land which is known as the Bandera Crater and the Bandera Crater Ice Cave, and then behind it to the left if you look at the map here Cerro Bandera you would think an ice cave. Maybe it's not really made of ice, but you would think an ice cave would be open in the wintertime. But it's not. So I have to come back down when it's
Speaker 1:open again. Now I'm on the other side of the cinder cone and about to walk down El Malpais Way out there where those bluffs are Probably doing that tomorrow, at least one of the trails over in that area. We'll check that out. A little tricky to film going down. We do have to backtrack a little bit on top of the cinder cone and come to the stairway which is easy to miss. I started trying to go down and then I found the stairway and came down and then you just go this way back to the junction and then we'll go to the junction where we saw earlier, which takes us back to the parking lot Great view of the cinder cone from as low as you can get Was a social trail here, but it's like they've marked it off, but I walked around that entire top of the cinder cone. Now we're gonna head back to the parking lot junction Okay, you can't say I didn't offer you choices but to the right down this
Speaker 1:dirt road. Here you can go .9 miles to the parking lot, back where I started, the El Malapai Information Center 3.1 miles. The Continental Divide Trail is one mile ahead. Then to continue the loop via the Continental Divide, you're adding another mile on top of that. I'm going to go the two miles, but you're welcome, if you hike this trail, to take a shortcut back to the parking lot or go even longer and go to
Speaker 1:the Info Center. Something I forgot to share with you and you can definitely see it here these ponderosas that are growing along the edge of the trail are actually growing along the edge of the lava field and the scientists really don't know why you have trees growing like that. But it's known as the edge effect and it's theorized that there's more water, that kind of collects and pools near the edge of the lava flow due to all the little fissures and cracks and crevices, and it allows more tree growth because there's more water. The other thing I wanted to share with you, the other thing I wanted to share with you which I forgot when I was on top of the, on top of the cinder cone, is there was two different eruption points in el de calderon's. History happened about 60 000 years, so way before there was any humans in this part of the world Really and truly before there was humans around. Excuse me, period. But one ejection ejected this black type lava and one ejected more
Speaker 1:of a red. Hopefully you can see this behind me there's Continental Divide Junction right there and I'm going to continue this way, going this way, flip it around. We have the end of the El Calderon Loop Trail, we have the parking area and the continental divide trail keeps going that way. Porter ranch road, three miles and encito encerito junction is 6.8. So if you're not aware of what the continental divide is, which we're on it right now, it's just we just
Speaker 1:merged with it. It is a cross-country trail starting in kind of the boot heel area, what we call it here in New Mexico, down on the Mexican border. If you've been watching my stuff for a while, you may have seen some videos of that, where I got on there when I was working in that area back in April, down in the Deming area down in southern New Mexico and anyways, pretty cool Mexico and anyways, pretty cool trail it. I guess it's probably the mid lengthwise one, but it might be the hardest one because it's in more rural, remote countryside compared to the AT or the Pacific Crest Trail for the majority of its length, as it goes all the way through New Mexico, from top to bottom, then to Colorado, then to Wyoming, then up into Montana and it finishes at the Canadian border in Glacier National Park. So that's your one-on-one quickie about Continental Divide Trail. Okay, coming up to the trailhead parking area Almost done. Stay tuned
Speaker 1:for a sum-up. Okay, so that was quite an interesting adventure. Took me about five and a half miles, not sure of the exact figure. Took me about five and a half miles, not sure of the exact figure. The official Park Service mileage is 5.6 if you do the entire thing, including going up in the cinder cone and going the long way back using the Continental Divide Trail, relatively flat throughout. There is a slight incline if you start from this direction here, which I wish, where I started, going to the, I guess, the east side of the loop, rather than starting on the Continental Divide Trail, which is pretty flat
Speaker 1:in this section. What were your observations about this. What do you think? How do you feel about this? I thought it was a cool thing. I've not really been able to do that, except for one other place. I walk around a dormant volcano, the Cinder Cone. That was also here in New Mexico, but I hope you enjoyed this. If you did give it a thumbs up, think about subscribing to the channel for more content like this and leave a comment below. Let me know if you've been here, if you have questions, and what you thought about this particular hike. With that being said, I bid you adieu and we'll see you out on the trail. Okay, bye.
