Last updated: July 15, 2025
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Volcanoes Day Use Area Audio Tour Stop 6

NPS Photo / Ben Holt
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You have now reached stop 6 of the Volcanoes Day Use Area audio tour. You have walked 0.90 miles or 1.45 kilometers. Black Volcano is the only volcano in the monument that visitors can ascend. At 5,974 feet or 1,821 meters it is the second tallest cone in the monument.
Volcanoes can come in all shapes and sizes, and as you may have noticed Black Volcano has no crater or rim with a pool of lava in the middle that many people think of when they picture a stereotypical volcano. That is because the volcanoes in Petroglyph National Monument are spatter cones which formed along a fissure eruption. The cones themselves were not the source of the lava, rather they were the accumulation of material coming out of the Earth at the end of the eruptions, when the magma chamber underneath was almost depleted. This sputtering magma chamber, full of gas and molten rock, formed into the cones we see today.
While cinder, spatter, and fissure volcanoes can be destructive on a local level, they are relatively low on the volcanic explosivity index. If the West Mesa volcanoes were erupting today as they did in the past, the majority of Albuquerque would be safe from the lava flows. In fact, if you were standing on the West Mesa during the eruptions, you would be able to outrun the lava flow at a brisk walking pace.
Descend off the summit following the same path you used to ascend and then follow the trail to the left another 0.38 miles or 0.61 kilometers to reach Audio Tour Stop 7.