Summit of El Calderon

Beautiful views await from the top of a 115,000 year old cinder cone at the summit of El Calderon.

NPS Photo

Quick Facts

Location:

34.95983, -108.0171

Designation:

National Monument

Amenities

1 listed

Scenic View/Photo Spot

El Calderon is a 60,000 year old cinder cone in El Malpais National Monument. From the El Calderon Summit, take a short 0.8 mile hike around the rim of El Calderon and look down into the eroded core of an ancient volcano.

Cinders

On your journey around the El Calderon summit, you will see many pea-sized rocks called cinders. Cinders are bits of lava that hardened as they were shot into the air from a vent in the ground. As the cinders fell to the ground, they formed a cone-shaped structure around the lava vent, building up the conical structure of the cider cone you see today.

El Calderon had at least two main eruption phases. One created the black cinders you can see from the summit; the other created the red cinders. The red cinders contain higher amounts of iron and oxidized (rusted) as they were exposed to the air.

How can anything grown in the loose, airy cinders around El Calderon? The cinders, as loose as they are, provide a good place for seeds to take root. The cinders may also retain water deep below the surface, providing ample moisture for trees, plants, and wildflowers. There are several plants in the monument that grow only on cinders: bracken ferns, cinder phacelia, and limber pine. On El Calderon Cinder Cone, look for ponderosa pines, Rocky Mountain juniper, and chamisa. In the late summer, primrose, Indian paintbrush, and sunflowers are common.

Bombs Away!

Cinders were not the only thing El Calderon sent flying into the air. Lava bombs, some up to three feet in diameter, were also hurled violently from the volcano. These rounded pieces of lava were formed when a piece of lava was ejected from the volcano and solidified before it hit the ground. If one of these bombs hit a tree, it could wrap around the trunk and create a horseshoe shaped lava bomb. If the bomb spiraled through the air, it would form an elongated bomb that resembled a football. Look for these lava bombs around the base of El Calderon.

A Point in Time

The eruption of El Calderon is just one dot on a timeline of events that continue to shape the earth. By the time El Calderon was formed 60,000 years ago, the area around El Malpais had already seen millions of years of volcanic activity. After El Calderon's eruption, volcanic activity continued about every eight to ten thousand years. Because cinder cones do not erupt again once the vent is plugged with hardened lava, El Calderon itself is no longer an active volcano. However, it is possible that there will again be volcanic activity in the El Malpais area. Will it happen in our lifetime? Only time will tell, but history reveals that it will be several thousand years before this area sees volcanic activity.

Reminders of the Past

Cinders were once mined from the El Calderon Area before it became part of a national monument. Notice a hole in the side of the cinder cone? This hole, along with items such as glass bottles, tin cans, and tools that occasionally turn up in the loose cinders are evidence of a cinder mining operation. It is not known how long the mine was active, but the cinders were probably used to build roads.