La Ventana Natural Arch, Grants

There is a short trail to get closer to this arch at El Malpais National Monument. It's high up in a rock wall, and everything about the rock cliffs and the arch is HUGE. El Malpais also is an area of not-so-old lava flows, and you can look out over the valley and see all the black cooled lava still lying where it cooled. It's a rather eerie sight. But there's also lots of beautiful scenery in the Monument. We loved it.

The Arch and the area is beautiful. We were there at around 11 am and the sun 2as shinning right above the Arch so it made taking pictures a little hard. It was so pretty here. There were only a couple of other people around. The path was marked and had gravel on it. It was a nice little walk up to the Arch. Someone had found a bunch of bones and they were laying on a picnic table. It would be very nice to have a picnic here. There are bear proof trash bins to use. It also has two pit toliets. They were clean and had plenty of toliet paper. The visitor center is only open on Thursday through Sunday so it was closed on Tuesday when we were there.