View from the rim trail Mt Capulin (copyright 2008)
You leave the flat Texas plains behind you and begin to move into a somewhat rolling area of green hills populated by deer, antelope and birds of prey. Soon after leaving Clayton, New Mexico behind, you begin seeing cone shaped mountains rise up out of the high desert floor and black lava flows on either side of the road. Up ahead there is a perfect shaped cone of a mountain. As you get closer you can see road encircling it. This is Mount Capulin. Standing as a sentry it guided those traveling the Santa Fe Trail.
The volcano rises 8182 ft above sea level and 1300 feet above the plains around it. The base of it is 4 miles around. The crater is 415 feet deep. Capulin got its name from the Spanish word for chokecherry. The plant grows prolifically on the slopes and in the crater. The area from Raton to Clayton New Mexico and up to the Colorado border is dotted with volcanoes. They make up a high ridge that was most inhospitable to the white settlers attempting the Santa Fe Trail. The volcanic field covers 8,000 sq miles from Trinidad, Colorado to Clayton New Mexico. Capulin was thought to have last erupted 60,000 years ago and was one of the most recent eruptions in the field. [1]
Capulin is a cinder cone. That means that the eruption was mainly of ash, rock and cinders that exploded upwards and then fell back to earth creating a cone. [2] The volcanoes of the area are considered dormant but it is believed that there could be an eruption at anytime though it is not anticipated in the near future.[3] The Capulin volcano is different from, say, Mount St. Helens because of its origins. Mount St. Helens sits on the boundary of a tectonic plate subduction zone; a place where the oceanic plate is sliding beneath (subducted) the North American Continental plate. Most of the volcanoes along the Pacific Ring of Fire are this type of volcano. However, the Capulin volcano is considered a “hotspot” volcano. Volcanologists recognize only 49 volcanic "hot spots" in the world. A few other famous volcanic hot spots include the Azores, Reunion Island, Iceland, Hawaii, and parts of East Africa[4] These volcanoes are basaltic in nature rather than rhyolitic. Basaltic volcanoes are less explosive than those that contain rhyolite which becomes very explosive when water is added to the mixture.[5] The Yellowstone volcano started out as a Rhyolitic volcano and had one of the largest eruptions every known on earth. But once the rhyolite is spent as with Yellowstone, lesser eruptions can occur if the volcano sits over a hotspot with molten basalt rising through lithospheric fissures. These fissures continue to provide molten material over a long period of time. Tuzo Wilson, the Canadian geophysicist who discovered, the "hotspot" theory, believed that as the tectonic plate moves the volcano that has been erupting moves beyond the hotspot, another volcano begins to erupt behind the former one creating a chain of volcanoes now lead by extinct volcanoes. Hotspots are long-lived so they may create many successive volcanoes.[6] You see this with Hawaii where the younger island is to the south east and the older islands are located at the top of the chain. You can follow a trail of older volcanoes to the west of Yellowstone through Idaho and Oregon.[7] The Capulin Volcano is believed to be part of the Yellowstone hotspot. [8]
As you stand at the top of Capulin you get a bird’s eye view of this kind of volcanic history. Visiting Mt Capulin is easy. You just drive right up the road to the rim of the crater. It is an easy walk down into the crater. At the right time of year you will find chokecherries on the bushes that have grown up inside and along the volcanoes sides. There are many birds, especially humming birds in the area along with crows and birds of prey circling above. The rim trail is a longer trail. Make sure to heed the signs of snakes in the area. I did not see any rattle snakes but was chased by a non-poisonous snake that was very aggressive. I was merely walking down the rim trail and a couple was walking up and had scared the snake. It felt my heat signature and made a bee line for me. I moved backwards very quickly and it veered off at the last minute. Make sure that you take water with you since it is fairly warm and protected inside the crater and there is no water at the trail head. Also make sure you have gas in your car before you head up the mountain since there are no gas stations in Capulin. There is no camping inside the park. You will find a very small rv park in Capulin. [9]
Make sure to take your camera to capture the breathtaking views. Have fun!
[1] http://www.nps.gov/cavo/naturescience/index.htm
[2] http://www.nature.nps.gov/geology/parks/cavo/
[3] http://www.ohranger.com/capulin-volcano/geology
[4] http://www.cimarronnm.com/PDF/Capulin%20Volcano.pdf
[5] Alt, David and Hyndman, Donald W, Roadside Geology of Oregon, Mountain Press Publishing Company, copyright 1978
[6] http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/hotspots.html
[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotspot_%28geology%29
[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotspot_%28geology%29
[9] http://www.nps.gov/cavo/planyourvisit/index.htm
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