Capulin Volcano National Monument

At the meeting place between the shortgrass prairie and the Rocky Mountains, Capulin Volcano National Monument protects a natural and cultural environment that is rich in opportunities to explore and study a dramatic volcanic landscape. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson established Capulin Volcano National Monument to preserve the nearly perfectly shaped volcanic cinder cone, which stands more than twelve hundred feet above the surrounding high plains of northeastern New Mexico. Just one of about a hundred volcanic features in the Raton-Clayton Volcanic Field, Capulin Volcano is one of the most accessible volcanoes in the world. A two-mile paved road spirals up to the volcano rim, providing unobstructed, panoramic views of the volcanic field, and distant Sangre de Cristo Mountains. With trails leading around the one-mile rim and to the bottom of the 415-feet-deep crater, you have the unique opportunity to take in some of the most spectacular views in the West.