We stuck around southern Colorado a few extra days because we really wanted to go to Capulin Volcano. I had already told the little girls about their pre-reader Jr. Ranger program, and the fact that they could earn LADYBUG BUTTONS, and they were so excited that we would not NOT go (OK, we could have skipped it, but they would have been so bummed that we really wanted to take them 😉
Capulin seemed quite a drive from I-25, but it really wasn’t that far – just lots of road construction and not great roads…
Even though it is surrounded by other volcanoes, it would be hard to miss…
We stopped by the visitor’s center and picked up ranger booklets for the boys, and the ladybug scavenger hunt papers for the little girls…
They were great for the girls – the whole thing was spotting ladybugs, deer, birds, flying insects, specific trees and plants… and drawing something that you saw on your visit…
This program is unique because you earn a badge for the booklet, (or a ladybug button for the scavenger hunt), and then, if you hike the rim trail, you earn an activity patch.
You would think that we have been in northern New Mexico long enough to know that you do your outside walking at the parks in the morning, before the wind picks up as it seems to do every afternoon. But no, we had to work on our books first, and by the time we drove to the rim (eating lunch on the way), a storm was moving in. The boys did the parts of their booklets that they needed to do from the plaques in the parking lot…
and then they did the quick little .2 mi. (ea way) walk down to the crater vent; which is an 105 ft decent. They had to count how many steps it was for their booklets.
For being millions of years old, this mountain shows precious little erosion!Vaughn and I, along with Peanut, Joel, Daniel, Jacob, and Eli started on the one mile rim trail loop. It looked to be an easy hike, but by now the wind was howling, and it was freezing out! Peanut and I didn’t get far before we (me) decided we’d go sit in the van and visit the big girls (and look for flying insects from inside the van!). Dad and Joel weren’t far behind! But Daniel, Jake, and Eli persevered! (those 3 tiny dots on the top of the rim in the middle of the pic below are them…)
They were determined to earn those patches! It looked like a long way around, but they didn’t take long at all!
and they got to see the view from the top in all directions!
It didn’t take them long to walk the rim – probably the spitting snow helped hurry them along 🙂
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