Capulin Volcano is one of the outstanding landmarks located in the northeast corner of New Mexico, where the rolling grasslands meet the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, and it was an unexpected surprise as we drove past it on the first leg of our journey home!

Approximately 60,000 years ago, firework-like explosions of molten rock erupted thousands of feet into the air. As the cinders cooled, four lava flows formed the volcano, a near perfectly shaped symmetrical cinder cone, rising to an elevation of over 8,000 feet above sea level.

What makes visiting this extinct volcano so special is that you can you drive all the way around it, hike its mile-long circumference and follow a trail down into the 400 feet deep crater.

Surrounding the Capulin Volcano is a large volcanic field containing at least 100 recognizable volcanoes. Volcanic fields consist of clusters of many small volcanoes, each up to two miles across. Thousands of years may separate the eruption of each small volcano, but they all occur within the space of a hundred miles or so, and are restricted to several hundred thousand to a million years in time.

The volcano’s highest point provides unobstructed, panoramic views of the volcanic field, distant snow-capped mountains, and portions of five states – Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas!