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After finishing my walking in Petroglyphs National Monument, I hopped in my car and drove about one hour west on I-40, exiting at New Mexico state highway 117, and heading south about nine miles, to the BLM's El Malpais ranger station. I chatted with a ranger there before continuing south on 117. After an additional 9 miles, I passed (but did not stop at) the La Ventana Arch viewpoint, which has a short hike to the base of the arch. I then continued an additional 3.5 miles or so further south, passing a sign that indicated this was "The Narrows," before reaching the South Narrows Picnic Area. This is the trailhead for the Narrows Rim Trail, which I hiked this day.
"The Narrows" seems misnamed to me, because I'd expect a narrows to be, well, narrow, with walls on either side of you. Instead, these narrows have the sandstone wall on one side, but a lava flow on the other.
The BLM handout for this area, is here. The descriptions of La Ventana and The Narrows Rim Trail are the first two entries on the handout. One thing to be aware of, however, is the length of this hike. While the handout says this hike is 6.5 miles roundtrip, the ranger at the info center gave the distance of the Rim Trail as 8 miles roundtrip. This would be consistent with some on-line descriptions of the trail, which emphasized that the mileage estimate for this trail seemed to be substantially shorter than reality.
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The trail is even more level later along the way, with much of it running near the west end of the mesa. A nice view down to the picnic area is visible near this start.
As you continue to the north, your relative altitude increases, with a sharp drop off on your left. Normally, you'd be overlooking black pahoehoe lava. On the day of my hike, however, the lava was snow-covered, with the only dark areas being where cracks in the lava revealing shadowed sections of earth.
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After what seemed like somewhat more than one mile (and, by the on-line description I had read, WAS more than one mile), I saw a rock with a "1 mile" written on it. Along pretty much the entire way, I walked through a dwarf piƱon pine/juniper forest.
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There were numerous numerous cairns or ducks marking the path pretty much the whole way, which was helpful because of the snow. The actual path was snow covered. But, even more so, some trail sections cross over rock, meaning that there'd be no evidence of trail without the cairns.
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Pools of solidly frozen water filled depressions in the sandstone at the top. During the summer, the pools team with fairy shrimp. However, the low temperature the previous night was supposed to be 14 degrees in Grants, the nearest town to El Malpais. Hard to imagine those "shrimp" eggs surviving being alternately frozen solid or dried under a hot sun, but still being able to hatch, but this, they have apparently been doing for thousands of years.
I love this area! Can't believe how much snow there is!
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