Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
13. Capulin Volcano National Monument
Armedwithflintspearheads,primitive humansknownasFolsomMan(forthetownwhere
their bones and spear points were discovered) hunted such prehistoric animals as giant
ground sloths and woolly mammoths. And it is possible that Folsom Man may have wit-
nessed, and been terrified by, a dazzling display of pyrotechnics: Capulin Mountain—a
nearly symmetrical, extinct volcano—exploded many thousands of years ago, spewing ash
and steam into the atmosphere.
For a present-day view of the volcano, take the narrow road that ends just below the
summit, then walk the rim trail. Another trail descends a quarter mile into the crater.
14. Clayton Lake State Park
A century ago, a vast sea of tall, saddle-high grass rippled across the Great Plains in an
unbroken prairie that extended for thousands of square miles. It's gone now, done in and
turned under by the farmer's plow and eaten by grazing cattle. But a few remnants sur-
vive here and elsewhere. At Kiowa National Grasslands, a 136,505-acre preserve east of
Clayton, it is still possible to imagine straight-horned bison and prehistoric hunters watch-
ing an endless sea of grass as it swayed to the distant horizon.
Aeons before the first Indians arrived in North America and the prairie took root, di-
nosaurs roamed the banks of an ancient sea, one whose shores stretched from the Gulf of
Mexico to Canada. The enormous beasts left their mark at Clayton Lake State Park, north-
westofClayton,where500elephantinefootprints(discoveredafterascouringrainstormin
1982) are embedded in a two-acre swath of sandstone: a fitting finale for visitors taking a
journey imbued with images from the past.
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