Capulin Volcano

Vital Stats
Name: Capulin
Type: Cinder Cone
Eruption Status: Extinct
Last Eruption: Approximately 60,000 years ago
Location: 36.7811° N, 103.9695° W
Northeastern New Mexico; Raton-Clayton Volcanic Field

The drive east through Northern New Mexico can be a pretty boring one.  The landscape is flat and brown, minus a few hills popping up here and there.  Major yawn factor – until you see the unmistakable cone of a volcano standing majestically next to the highway.  And then you realize exactly what you’re driving through.

The Raton-Clayton Volcanic Field stretches from southern Colorado to the western border of Oklahoma and Texas, near the town of Clayton, NM.  This volcanic field is a bit of an anomoly in the volcano world. Most volcanoes form on hot spots (like Hawaii) or along plate boundaries (Cascade Range).  New Mexico doesn’t sit on either one.  However, a continental rift does run though the area where the land is pulling apart and much thinner than the surrounding crust. This is what allowed magma to rise to the surface, creating some spectacular volcanic activity.

The volcanic field was active as long as 9 million years ago, forming all manner of lava flows and volcanoes.  And if you know what you’re looking for, you can see evidence of these everywhere. Enormous mesas line the north side of Highway 87.  These are massive lava flows!  Eroded and covered in trees, they’re a little tough to recognize after thousands of years.  Those hills dotting the landscape?  All of them are volcanoes.  Most are cinder cones, but the largest volcano in the area – Sierra Grande – is a shield volcano like you’d see in Hawaii.  The diversity here is amazing and the views are incredible.  And one of the most beautiful sights is mighty Capulin, standing watch over the highway.

Capulin is one of the youngest of these volcanoes, and the easternmost in North America.  She stands more than 1,300 feet above the plains, topping off at 8,182 feet above sea level.  Capulin is known as the Sentinel of the Plains, and she’s breathtaking as she watches over the vast stretches of prairie.

I’d seen her many times as a kid – keeping a sharp eye for the volcano’s cone on long road trips through the area.  This morning, as we approached, clouds wrapped around the volcano’s slopes like a misty veil.  Every now and again, we’d catch a glimpse of the steep cone through the clouds as we approached.  But the thick clouds didn’t stop us – we darted straight for the summit!

Capulin was made a National Monument in 1916, and the volcano has been meticulously cared for and preserved because of it.  I’ve seen volcanoes that are much younger, and in a far worse state of deterioriation.  In the 1920’s, with the advent of motor cars, the park warden requested a road be put in to the summit of the volcano.  The National Park Service denied the request, but that didn’t stop him. And to this day, the road still exists.

It’s easy to get turned around on the spiral that leads to the summit.  On our left were magnificent banks of cinder and ash that made up the volcano’s base; on the right was a sheer drop 1,000 feet down to the prairie below.

Then, suddenly, you come into a small parking area.  I ran right to the wall overlooking the summit crater. A freezing wind met me and clouds swirled down into the crater.  It was completely silent.  I could hear my own heart beating.  It gave the volcano a fascinating, almost mystical, dimension to it.  And the 30 degree weather gave it a dimension that was FREEZING!

Already seeing a patch of blue sky trying to burn through above, we headed back down to the base of the volcano.  One of the reasons Capulin is so well preserved is because the vents that issued the four lava flows are at the base of the cone.  We tugged on our hiking shoes and set off to explore the Lava Flow Trail.  The things that we found were amazing, unexpected, and shed a lot of light on the personality of Capulin volcano.

Up Next:  Come join us on our Lava Flow Trail adventure!

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