El Magnifico El Malpais

Today we broke free. Escaped. Had an adventure. Tried to outrun the sickness that has been plaguing our home for over a week. (But we did allow the kleenex box to tag along or else there would have been a big boogery mess, myself being the main contributor...) We headed an hour west to El Malpais, meaning "The Badlands". It was amazing! Check it out!

It was like a huge rock playground with a big drop-off on one side. And it was freezing. Almost. I guess it was 35 degrees. That's why I look like a hoodlum with my hood pulled up. Once my nose went numb it wasn't bad at all! Here I am holding onto my kids for dear life. I know we were standing still, but we were less than 6 feet away from a big fall and I could just visualize my kids tripping and plummeting to their deaths.

There were ice puddles all over the place. Bekah and Jacob had a blast "ice skating" on them. This was my favorite formation...two rocks just far enough apart to create a fun little secret passageway. I felt like a kid on an adventure.

Look at my hot honey! So strong!

Beau was so happy to be a part of our expedition. I'm pretty sure his nose was frozen, too, but he was all smiles!

Jacob was dubbed "Speed Racer" on this trip because...well actually because he was SO slow! Where Bekah is an adventurer and an explorer, Jacob is a careful, cautious, fearful, do-it-for-the-candy kind of hiker. This is us lagging behind. Just a little further down the road there was a trail called Lava Falls that of course we had to check out. The entire area was covered with lava rock. It was amazing! Also amazing was the fact that anything could grow there!

There were cracks in the rocks all over the place, some just inches deep, and some like this one, which was probably six feet in its deepest parts. The cracks made Rus and I nervous, especially because some of them were disguised by snow and because they could swallow our children whole. Next time we're taking rope.
The trail was marked by carins. (Piles of rocks. Is that how you spell it?) We would find one carin and then find the next and hike to it. There was absolutely no pathway or trail. Here is Jacob and carin.


All this fun adventuring wore Beau out. And yes, he could breathe in this position. I checked.

All in all we had a great time exploring and I can't wait to go back when it's not so cold!