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| Hiking | 10.56 Miles |
2,581 AEG |
| | Hiking | 10.56 Miles | 5 Hrs 27 Mns | | 2.19 mph |
| 2,581 ft AEG | 38 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | This hike was to the summit of 2 peaks in Union County:
1) Sierra Grande (elevation of 8,720 feet and prominence of 1,880 feet), the county highpoint
2) Capulin Volcano (elevation of 8,182 feet and prominence of 1,002 feet), in the Capulin Volcano National Monument
Union County is in extreme northeastern New Mexico; the county seat is Clayton. Union County is one of the few US counties that borders counties from 4 different states: New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, and Oklahoma. One of its neighbors, Cimarron County in Oklahoma, is the only US county that borders counties in 5 different states.
Like most of eastern New Mexico, and the high plains in general, Union County is solidly Republican. The last Democratic presidential candidate to carry Union County was Harry Truman in 1948.
Sierra Grande
Sierra Grande is an extinct volcano and is part of the inactive Raton-Clayton volcanic field. The eastern slopes of Sierra Grande are the easternmost point in the United States that is over 8,000 feet in elevation.
I drove in on a New Mexico State Land Trust road off of US Highway 64. I had forked over $35 to get a New Mexico State Land Trust Permit, which is good for a year. It is doubtful that I will use the permit again this year, but you never know.
The dirt State Land Trust road was muddy from rains the previous day/night, and I was driving a rental SUV with street tires. I drove in a little over a mile, and decided that the risk/reward trade-off didn't merit driving the additional 2 miles on this road, so I parked and walked to a trailhead parking area at the end of the road. The road was mostly flat, so it was an easy walk.
After leaving the road the hike was through open country as I gained elevation. The gradient wasn't too steep, and there were lanes and pathways through the plentiful juniper trees on the way up.
It was wildlife day on the ascent: I saw 2 elk herds, 2 pronghorn groups, and 2 turkeys.
Once closer to the summit I got beyond the juniper trees and the views opened up. There were 3-4 false summits, and highpoint had an antenna farm on it. The views were nice there, so I hung out a bit before heading back.
I returned the way that I came up.
Capulin Volcano
Capulin Volcano is the centerpiece of the Capulin Volcano National Monument. It is a few miles NW of Sierra Grande, and it did not take long to drive there from Sierra Grande.
There is a paved road that goes to a parking lot near the top of the mountain. On the way up I stopped by the Visitors Center to show them my America the Beautiful pass, which was good for admission. Otherwise, they charge a per vehicle fee of $20.
Clouds had been building during the day, and when I got to the Crater Rim Overlook Parking Area atop the mountain it was starting to rain, along with some lightning. I figured that the top of a volcano was not a good place to be during a lightning storm so I drove back down to the visitors center. When I got back down they closed the road due to lightning. I was thinking that I might not be able to do the hike afterall, but I decided to wait and see if the storm would blow by.
After waiting for a while, they reopened the road so I drove back up. I then hiked on the Crater Rim Trail, which is a paved path that goes on and around the near perfect rim of the volcano. Storm clouds started building again, so I put it into high gear, hiking the one mile loop in 14 minutes. With the pending storm, I did not get to enjoy the hike -- there were interpretive signs along the way and there were lots of photo opportunities on the trail.
I got back to my vehicle just before the bottom fell out, so I was glad that I was at least able to do the hike.
Distance and elevation gain for these 2 hikes is below. Stats above should be the sum of the 2, but Route Scout credited me with an extra 0.01 miles and an extra 36 feet of elevation gain.
Sierra Grande: 9.61 miles with 2,274 feet of AEG
Capulin Volcano: 0.94 miles with 271 feet of AEG
This was the first time that I used the merge feature in Route Scout to combine the 2 GPX tracks into one, and it worked very well. |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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