Two Plus a Handful: Capulin Volcano National Monument

Saturday, April 27, 2019

We drove down to New Mexico to meet Dan, Tabitha, Ryan, and Will to climb a volcano! I don't think Christmas morning carries more excitement than this morning did for Samson!

Ah, Spanish Peaks!

Approaching Capulin.

Yeah, it's okay, cow. I'll wait for you.

Those are all volcanoes, too.

I was a little disappointed we couldn't hike up the volcano, but driving in a circle for 3 minutes to get to the top was fun, too!

We started by taking the short trail down into the volcano cavity.

360

And then up the rim trail and around.

We love wildflowers! I teach my kids not to pick them, so we talk about what we can do with them instead. We can look, touch, smell, count, and take pictures.

And all the lichens!

There's something awesome about standing on top of a volcano, being able to see for what seems like forever, and looking over dozens of other volcanoes at the same time.

Cacti

"Let's sit and have a rest!"

These two are such fantastic little buddies sometimes!

"Tabitha, don't be jealous!" --Katie, as she and Thora take both of Dan's hands.

Every time Shad held Will, he fell asleep.

Down on the lava flows around the volcano.

This babe loved my straw. Then I taught him how to get water from it and he loved it even more!

The hike was a strenuous one because of the very rocky ground. It was very challenging and frustrating for Thora. She fell several times and was cheery about it at first, but then started to get upset. We all tried to boost her spirits and confidence by telling her she's doing a great job and that this is hard even for adults. She wouldn't believe it from Tabitha, but after a few tries, she finally believed it from me when I reminded her that Poppy fell so many times but what did she do?! "Get back up again! Woah-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-ohh! Get back up again!"

And then Thora stopped being mad at Tabbie and consented to let her help by holding her hand.

This is a place of fairies!

Cow skull!

Porous lava rock all over!

Capulin at a distance.

I love this name!

At this point, I told Sam and Thora that we were past all the difficult ground and that they could be "independent hikers" and not hold my hands the whole time. So we practiced being independent hikers!