Day 4- May 27- New Mexico

This is the sunset from yesterday as we drove the rest of the way to Capulin Volcano National Monument.  This was not on the original itinerary, but we decided to add it because we had some extra time.  Oh my goodness, is this drive beautiful.  

The view above is from the campground looking up to the volcano.  We headed up to the park around 8:00 AM.  It was very cold here this morning and we had to add sweatshirts to our attire once we got to the top of the volcano.

As we were hiking up the mountain, the boys took that moment to do bench hops for football speed and agility.  They did between 5 and 10 hops on every bench we encountered.  There may not be a more beautiful place for speed and agility drills. 

As we hiked up the volcano (we were the first ones up for the morning), we enjoyed our time of isolation and quiet.  The hills of New Mexico were visible in the distance and it was a stunning view from the top.

Panoramic view from the top of the volcano.

As we were driving through New Mexico, we saw hundreds of pronghorn roaming the free grass.  My boys love to see wild animals that they do not normally see.

From Capulin, we headed to Fort Union which was a stop along the Santa Fe Trail.

Many of the original remains were still there today.

When we left Fort Union, we headed to Pecos, where David took a little nap in the car while the boys and I explored.  I am so grateful for someone who is willing to do all of the driving, particularly with the camper.  It is not easy work and I never have to do any of it.

We also stopped at Bandalier National Monument, but the shuttle driver gave us bad information when he dropped us off.  Therefore, we did a fantastic 3 mile hike - even though we were not planning on it.  Unfortunately, we did not get to see very much of the ruins and that was a little bit disappointing.  There were two visitor centers here and we did not realize that he was stopping at the trailhead and the other visitor center, so we got off at the trailhead because he said he was going back to the visitor center and we could get to the ruins from here.  What we didn't realize was that we had to get back to the visitor center with enough time to get back to our car.  At the first visitor center, they had a campground that was basically a parking lot with electric hookups.  It was very strange.