El Malpais National Monument
1900 E Santa Fe Ave, Grants, NM
Grants, NM
A raw, black expanse of lava flows and cinder cones so young the land still looks freshly poured.
El Malpais National Monument protects one of the great volcanic landscapes of the American Southwest, a vast field of black lava flows, cinder cones, and lava tubes south of Grants. The name comes from the Spanish for the badlands, a fitting description for terrain so rugged and broken that early travelers found it nearly impassable. Some of the flows are geologically very young, so recent that the land still looks freshly made.
Yet this seemingly barren country is threaded with human history. Ancient Native trails cross the lava, marked by stone cairns, connecting the pueblos and villages of the region for centuries. Ancestral Puebloan people and their descendants have known this land intimately for a very long time, and it remains significant to the living Pueblos and to the Navajo Nation. To walk here is to cross a landscape that is at once raw geology and deep human story.
What Guests Love
- The stark, otherworldly expanse of black lava flows stretching to the horizon
- Hiking historic Native trails marked by rock cairns across the lava
- Cinder cones, lava tubes, and other signs of recent volcanic activity
- Ancient, gnarled trees that have taken root in the barren rock over centuries
Worth Knowing
- The lava is sharp and uneven, so wear sturdy boots and go slowly to protect your feet and ankles
- It is easy to lose your way on the featureless flows, so follow the cairns and carry a map and plenty of water
- There is little shade and no water out on the lava, so plan carefully, especially in warm months
- This is a sacred landscape to nearby Pueblo and Navajo communities, so treat it and any cultural sites with respect
Details
Grants, NM
Learn about El Malpais National Monument
A young volcanic landscape
El Malpais records a long chapter of volcanic activity, with lava flows of many different ages layered across the region. The youngest flows are among the most recent in the area, so fresh that vegetation has barely begun to take hold and the surface still shows the ropy, jagged textures of cooling lava. Cinder cones mark the vents where fiery fountains once built hills of loose volcanic rock.
Beneath the flows run lava tubes, tunnels left where molten rock drained out from under a hardened crust, some of them floored with ice that lasts through the year. Aboveground, the lava freezes in place the shapes of its final moments: pressure ridges, collapsed tubes, and fields of broken black rock. It is a place where the processes that build the earth feel close enough to touch.
Ancient trails and living traditions
For centuries, Native people found ways across this forbidding country, and the monument preserves stretches of ancient trails marked by rock cairns that guided travelers over the lava. These routes linked communities across the region and carried trade, ceremony, and daily life. The Ancestral Puebloan people knew this land deeply, and their descendants in the modern Pueblos of Acoma, Laguna, and Zuni maintain enduring ties to it.
The Navajo Nation also holds this country as part of its homeland, and stories tied to the lava live on in Native traditions that explain its origins and meaning. The monument works in partnership with these communities to protect both the landscape and its cultural significance. Visitors are asked to walk lightly, stay on trails, and treat any signs of past habitation with care.
Trees, wildlife, and life on the lava
Life takes hold slowly on the lava, and what survives is all the more remarkable. Ancient junipers and ponderosa pines root in cracks and hollows, some of them among the oldest trees in the region, twisted and hardened by centuries of hard living. Mosses, lichens, and hardy shrubs gradually colonize the black rock, beginning the long work of turning stone into soil.
Wildlife includes mule deer, elk, coyotes, and mountain lions in the surrounding country, along with bats that roost in the lava tubes and a range of desert birds and reptiles among the flows. The mix of lava, sandstone, and forest edge creates varied habitat, so a patient visitor can see far more life than the barren look of the lava first suggests.
Seasons and exploring the monument
Spring and fall offer the best conditions for hiking the lava, with mild temperatures and clear skies. Summer is hot, and the black rock soaks up the sun, so early starts and plenty of water are essential, though the afternoon monsoon storms bring dramatic clouds and can green the land. Winter is cold and can dust the black flows with startling white snow.
The monument rewards a bit of planning. Trails like the one that crosses the lava following the ancient cairns require good footwear and navigation, while overlooks and shorter walks give a taste of the landscape for less effort. Whatever the season, the combination of young volcanic rock, ancient trees, and deep human history makes El Malpais one of the most quietly extraordinary places in New Mexico.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Grants
Grants
About 5 miles north
A Route 66 town at the base of Mount Taylor, gateway to El Malpais and El Morro, with a mining museum.
La Ventana Arch
About 30 miles south
One of the largest natural sandstone arches in New Mexico, on the eastern edge of the badlands along NM-117.
Acoma Pueblo
About 40 miles east
Sky City, one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in North America, atop a sheer mesa.