El Malpais & El Morro National Monuments

Today, being our second day in the Grants NM area, we drove into Grants on old Rt. 66.  This town has seen better days since the uranium mine closed.  Picture the movie Cars.  We traveled out to the East part of El Malprais to see the LaVentana Natural Arch (largest in NM), the lava field overlook, and then took the 3 mile loop trail to see several collapsed lava tubes, a bat cave , and a cinder cone.  Not terribly exciting, but a nice walk on a cloudy 75F day.  For the afternoon we went back to walk the two miles at El Morro again. We had hoped to spend a little more time on top of the mesa but instead encountered a summer rain storm with wind, heavy rain, and a little thunder just after we reached the half way point and the top of the mesa.  Not the best place to be but a unique experience. Still an excellent day overall. Wildlife of the day was a raven that begged my fig newton and an 8" lizard that was curious.