One of the things we love about traveling is happening upon things that we never knew existed and might not have even known to look for. That happened on our recent journey across New Mexico.

We recently spent some time in Sedona, Arizona, so we could enjoy the great outdoors and do some hiking. Once our scheduled stay there was over and we headed back to Oklahoma for a short stay, we decided to take the road less traveled and travel on highways and back roads instead of traveling the interstate. The interstate can get you from point A to point B quicker and easier but it’s definitely not as enjoyable and there usually aren’t the same kinds of views.

We traveled to Socorro, New Mexico, for the first night on our journey east and as we drove out of there the next morning we stumbled upon an area of lava rock. We noticed it on the side of the highway and decided to stop and take in the view and take a few pics.

Then we discovered as we went just a little further up the road that it’s a whole recreation area with a campground, a nature trail, and amazing views! We had no idea something like this was even here!

It’s great because you can drive into the recreation area and up a hill so you get an amazing view of the lava rock from up above.

We learned that this lava isn’t from a volcano but had seeped up out of vents in the ground. It covers a surface area of about 127 square miles!!

We enjoyed walking a bit of the nature trail and seeing some of the signs that shared what the place was about. It’s always fun to learn more things about places around the US!

One of the things we’re planning to do this year is invest in some good camping equipment and this is one of the reasons why we’ve been discussing that for awhile. When we happen upon things like this that are so cool and there’s a campground where you can easily stay for a day or two, why not take advantage of that! We said this was an area it would definitely be fun to come back to and explore.

So if you find yourself traveling through New Mexico, if highway 380 would work for you, we would definitely recommend checking this out!

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