Only about 5,000 years ago—the blink of an eye in geologic time—a small cinder cone in the north part of the Tularosa Basin poured forth a slow, nearly steady lava flow for about a decade, similar to some of Kilauea’s action in Hawaii. Still rugged and sharp, the flow known as Carrizozo Malpais, or Valley of Fires, is one of the youngest in the continental U.S. The lava field extends for 44 miles and offers fascinating sights, large and small, on hikes through its many forms. One of those scenes was unplanned, sheer luck of timing and juxtaposition: the peripheral shape of an outcropping, and the strikingly similar outline of a young cumulonimbus erupting over the nearby Sacramento Mountains.
4 NW Carrizozo NM (6 Jul 21) Looking SE
33.6848, -105.9238