Ice Cave and Bandera Volcano

About

The Ice Cave and Bandera Volcano showcase two of America's most unique and dramatic natural wonders. Thanks to a quirk of geology, a small cave has been filling with ice for the past 3000 years beneath the hot New Mexico sun. Dense volcanic rock acts as an insulator, maintaining a temperature below 31 degrees, making a "Desert Ice Box", which has been attracting people into its depths for over 1,200 years. As the sunlight shines through a hole in the roof, the ice glistens in dazzling blues and greens. Just a short walk away is a polar opposite of natural wonder: the Bandera Volcano. This pine-encrusted crater formed some 10,000 years ago, and is now one of the best examples of a cinder-cone eruption in North America. Nearby in the El Malpais, there is the Trading Post that displays ancient artifacts handmade by the local First Nations tribes!