Ice Cave, Volcanoes, El Malpais, and El Morro

We took a little family trip out to Grants to see some national parks. Grants is just over an hour drive and figured that was good for our first little outing. We drove into Grants and dropped off our bags at the hotel, ate a quick lunch, then headed out to the Ice Cave and Volcano. We were racing against a storm coming in and wanted to see as much as we could.

Very windy and cold. Got ourselves bundled up and checked in and paid to see the volcano and caves. This place is privately owned.

Bronson does pretty good in the pack as long as you are moving. It wasn't very long to see the Volcano, maybe 20 minutes of walking.

This area is really beautiful! Pictures don't do justice.... or maybe it's my point and click method.

  

To prove that I was there too

A pretty old looking tree

Pretty sure we have seen some 'spattercone' before at our place:)

A flying piece of fiery rock....maybe?

Got back to the little cabin welcome thing, switched Bronson around and off we go to the Ice Caves Took 10 minutes, real easy walk.

Saw some Lava Tubes and caves on the way.  We would be seeing lots more of those later that day.

Stairs leading down to the cave. When I see things like this I think 'The poor Boy Scout his eagle project'. Ty pointed out that this isn't a National Park but privately owned, so probably not a boy scout.

Seriously pretty.

There is ice year round in the cave.

The stinker wouldn't look for our family selfie..... whatever

Lots of stairs.

We then entered El Malpais visitors center and got some info. The ranger there recommended this hike to see some of the caves and tunnels. People do go into the caves but need special permits. Bronson was a trooper and walked a little with us.

So these are the lava tunnels and caves, these two caves connected together. The trail actually went over the top of the tunnel. I can see why they won't let people into some of them. These things can collapse, and man you would be toast.

Picture taken from one cave into the tunnel to the other opening.

This one was huge! Glad we had Bronson in a pack, there are no fences and these things are deep.

The poor babe all tuckered out

The storm really started rolling in with snow and wind so we turned around and headed back to the hotel. That night we went to a hole in the wall Chinese food place for dinner. The best hot and spicy soup hands down! The rest of our dinner was pretty good too. 

That night Ty and I talked about how much fun we were having and that we need to do this more. Well we ate our words pretty fast. That night Bronson woke up at 11:30 and was screaming unless we were holding him, really for the whole night. He has never done this before. Poor kid and poor us. Ty figured out that the pack and play he was sleeping in wasn't comfortable at all. We added a blanket to it the next night and so much better for all of us. Now we know!

The next day we drove to El Morro, an old Indian dwelling site with hieroglyphs and inscriptions. This day was freezing!!!! Horizontal snow and temps around 31 degrees. Bronson did really well in the car. We planned the driving around his nap times and it worked out great. When he did wake up treats were his friends. He also played peek-a-boo with us a lot. 

 Bronson fell asleep pretty fast on our 45 minute drive to El Morro and woke up screaming. Figured we were already here so jumped out and bundled him up to see some things. Once again really pretty! We were bummed that it was so cold and that we couldn't hike to the top to see the indian dwellings. Good excuse to come back right?:)

This Oasis was used by the Spaniards and many many others for drinking water. They then etched their names on the walls

Drove back into town and ate lunch, went back to the hotel and let Bronson get his wiggles out. When he was ready for another nap we hit the road to see more of El Malpais. We really lucked out with the storms. We were able to see some beautiful scenery and as we finished it up the wind and snow hit hard.

Beautiful look out point!

We took turns getting out and looking because Bronson was sleeping. Ty on top of the look out.

Once again it was FREEZING, so we took lots of pictures from the car.

The largest natural arch in NM. Quarter of a mile hike to get up and close. Then the storm hit again just as I was running back to the car.

Bronson had a fun time running around the hotel room. Loved that we gave him the TV remote since we won't at home.

This was the greatest! A wall separating Bronson and us. We could still watch TV and check our electronic devices without waking him up 

All in all we agreed that it was a very fun trip and vacation. We are excited for our next one!

The next day we woke up ate breakfast and drove home. We had some friends over for dinner and then Ty helped Bronson with is bath while I cleaned up downstairs. Ty yelled for me to come up real quick to see something. Boys...... I made Ty take the toy off Bronson, but then figured we needed a picture. Bronson didn't want it back on and promptly took it off.