El Malpais National Monument and National Conservation Area

Published on May 22, 2022 | in National Conservation Area, National Monument By Christopher Maitland |

El Malpais National Monument and National Conservation Area

May 22, 2022

El Malpais means “the badlands” in the Spanish language and is commonly pronounced el-mal-pie-EES. While this relatively new landscape was created from lava flows about 2000 to 3000 years ago, the Sandstone Bluffs region is a remnant of an ancient sand dune. In the Bluffs you’ll find natural arches, 1930s homesteads and if you’re lucky, ancient petroglyphs.

https://www.nps.gov/elma/planyourvisit/sandstone-bluffs.htm

Visitor Center

1900 E Santa Fe Ave, Grants, NM 87020

La Ventana Natural Arch

La Ventana Natural Arch is not technically a part of El Malpais National Monument. Instead, it is managed by the Bureau of Land Management as part of El Malpais National Conservation Area surrounding El Malpais National Monument.

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Visit one of New Mexico’s largest natural arches! Wind and water eroded away the softer parts of the sandstone cliff, leaving behind a spectacular arch tucked away in a small canyon.

Sandstone Bluffs

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Sandstone Bluffs offers one of the few overlooks within all of El Malpais National Monument. Every direction you turn gives you a different view with a different feature to observe. Below the bluffs are the lava flows of El Malpais. To the north is a dramatic view of Mount Taylor.

If you enjoy sweeping vistas, Sandstone Bluffs is the place to be for a sunset.

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About Christopher Maitland

Cooking (and eating) great food is my passion. I am a self-taught home cook on a culinary journey where I am constantly discovering new tastes from recipes whilst teaching myself to cook and most recently bake. I created foodiemadesimple.com blog, after encouragement from my friend and web master Jerald, as a means to document and share all my culinary experiences and recipes with everyone. I strive to constantly create great food, simply and provide pleasant memories for friends and family who benefit from this culinary endeavor. Well in early 2017 my wife and I decided to sell our sticks and bricks house and rent one in a neighborhood we thought we wanted to move to to determine if we wanted to purchase a fixer-uper, remodel and make it our own. Several months later my wife said I don’t to set up another house just to pack it up and move again. What do you think about getting an RV and then when we decide where to buy we will have a place to stay while we remodel the new house and not have rent and a mortgage. I thought this was a brilliant idea and thus began the process of looking for the right RV. I found the right RV after months and months of research and looking, a 2018 Open Range Roamer 371MBH. This model has a mid-bunk that I use would use as an office with a door that will shut, wife requirement so she will not have to listen to me on the phone. Then the next challenge my current truck a GMC 2500HD will not tow the new 5er. So a truck shopping I went. Problem solved a 2017 RAM 3500HD Laramie 4X4 Dully with a Cummins Diesel. So bought the truck and 5er, put the house on the market and stated the task of downsizing from a 3600 sqft house to a 410 soft 5er and 2 10X15 climate controlled storage units. The house sold in November 2017 and after running foodiemadesimple.com for 3 1/2 years, Jerald and I decided to start rvcookingmadesimple.com where I will take what I created in a rather large 200 sqft kitchen in my sticks and bricks and recreate it in an RV kitchen breaking it down and making it simple. I hope you enjoy.

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