More of El Malpais, Pie Town, and Datil Well

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Thursday morning we had one more hike we wanted to do at the southern end of the park. It was on our route south, so we stopped at the Lava Falls trailhead. Twelve years ago we had our first hike across a lava bed when we visited with our daughter. What a crazy, unique experience! Since then we have had quite a few more volcanic experiences, but we wanted to go see this one again.

The hike out onto the massive lava flow takes you across a trail marked only by cairns, piles of volcanic rock that match the surface you are walking on. The trail guide gave us descriptions of the various features, and it is interesting to see how the lava didn't flow out into a flat surface, but rose and fell over the existing features, and rose and collapsed as it cooled. This flow is 3,000 years old. Very young by geologic standards.

Crack in 3,000-year-old lava

Inflation ridge and ropy pahoehoe

Can't even find critters in the deep, dark cracks. This is typical of the trail.

Kathleen found this big guy!

Ropy Pahoehoe lava texture

Stunted pinyon in the "dwarf forest"

Smoothly curved inflation dome

Hedgehog cactus

Does this ropy pahoehoe look like a giant cow patty?

Greg's new grasshopper "logo" shirt

The sun was getting high in the sky, but the temperature was still pleasant as we left El Malpais and headed towards our next destination, Pie Town! Out in the middle of God-forsaken nowhere New Mexico, is a town that specializes in pies. We wanted to see it and sample the delicacies, so we made the long, but scenic drive there. We drove through lots of huge ranches, through the town of Quemado, took a turn east and eventually came to a small town with only few buildings, three of them selling pies. After reading the glowing reviews on TripAdvisor, we selected Pie-O-Neer. Started by a woman fleeing the corporate rat-race, and loving making pies, what better place to set up shop than Pie Town? A century ago a man came to that stretch of country and became known for his pies. As the town grew it took on the name of Pie Town.

We entered the renovated building and found a cute, well done restaurant. We each had some green chili stew, iced tea, and walked over to the sideboard to pick out our pies. Greg got a chocolate chess pie with red chili, and I got a classic blueberry. Customers came in continuously, sat and ate pies, or carried out their specially ordered whole pies. One of the staff said that they were always crowded, but were open only limited hours because they couldn't hire enough staff. The older folks in the area were all retired and didn't want to work, and the young people moved to the city. Everyone working at the Pie-O-Neer had come there to escape the city! Greg and I looked around as we left Pie Town. It appeared that the owner lived in the back of the building, but we didn't see any other houses anywhere in the area. This was remote, I mean REMOTE! For a half second we considered a life living and working at the Pie-O-Neer and said, “No, too remote, even for us!”

Pie-O-Neer

Green Chili stew, blueberry pie, and chocolate chess with red chili pie

Before we left the Pie-O-Neer, we were told that they were going to be featured on CBS Morning this Sunday. They've been told to increase their pie production to meet the response. Also, a recent documentary was filmed featuring the Pie Lady. It was a fun stop!

Next stop was just down the road at the BLM's Datil Well campground. We stayed here twelve years ago during a bad fire season and a drought. Our daughter's head was constantly dive bombed by hummingbirds trying to drink the nectar on her blue flowered bandanna! This time, we found it quiet, almost empty, newly renovated, and full of grasshoppers. In fact, the front of our rig is thoroughly plastered with them from the last few days of driving across New Mexico. Fall has lingered, but winter is arriving this weekend, so all of nature is having its last fling; grasshoppers, flowers, reptiles, and all those that disappear as the weather chills.


Datil Well still exists to furnish the campground with fresh water. It was one of the wells on the historic Magdelena cattle and sheep route, where livestock were herded across the plains and mountains to market. We slept again where history has trod. Thousands of cattle, sheep, and cowboys spent many nights in this spot. I told Greg I was hearing the ghosts of cattle and sheep calling all night, but he said it was only the herd of beefs grazing across the road on BLM land...