I spent the better part of a day in El Malpais last week. My overall experience is that the landscapes there are either bland or terrifying, with very little in between.1
I found myself walking through an arroyo that got wider and wider. Another small arroyo started in the middle of the big one, and it was filled with multiple wildflowers. I have never before seen any part of El Malpais that was even half as colorful as that little arroyo was.
I saw so much fetid goosefoot there — in shades of green, yellow, orange, and red — but it defied my desire for up-close photos time and again.
It made for a stunning background though — in this case, for a single blade of blue grama grass, which is New Mexico’s state grass.2 While it’s green with a blue-gray “flag” during the summer, the blade above has begun to dry out. By the end of winter, most blue grama flags will have dried into near-perfect circles.
Two notable exceptions are the Sandstone Bluffs area and La Ventana, both of which are just off NM Highway 117.
New Mexico has numerous state symbols: for example, a state insect (the tarantula hawk wasp) and a state butterfly, the Sandia hairstreak (also an insect, but who’s counting?). We even have a state question: “Red or green?”