Killborne Hole, NM

Took alittle solo trip out to an area I had been wanting to explore for some time now. While researching the area I found there was an ancient volcano right in the middle of the area. It is called the Killborne Hole and is a 1 1/2 mile wide depression formed some 25,000 to 100,000 years ago when the area was under water. There is not much of a mound around the crater as it mostly spewed gas, however there is a small 75-100 foot mound around it, which if you didn't know what you were looking for you would just think it was a rise in the desert landscape. The crater itself is located approx 40-50 NW of El Paso, TX in New Mexico on a large expanse of BLM land. (Gotta love the west and all the public land)

Upon climbing the the mound surrounding the crater, this is your first view. I use the vehicle for scale. The crater is so large I could not capture the whole thing in one frame. The following 3 pictures are the crater from left to right.

Much of the interior walls are high mounds of volcanic rock.

Yours truely inside the crater.

After looking around inside the crater for a while, I drove a road the traverses the crater rim, then dropped down the outside of the mound.

The day was still yound, so it was off to explore the nearby mountains on Country Rd A008.

Several miles down, a road turned off and headed up into the mountains, so of course I had to check it out.

The road went for a mile or so and ended at a turn around about 1/4 the way up. The mountain range you see in the background are the mountains at Juarez, Mexico.

Lunch was in order, so I set up my chair and surveyed my Kingdom for awhile.

After Lunch it was time to head back. On the road home, I almost ran over this little guy sunning himself in the road. I just had to turn around and go back to see if it was a snake I saw and of course to get a pic if it was. I also took the pic from the safety of the drivers seat.

Another great adventure in the record books, since we will be leaving New Mexico soon, I wanted to make sure I explored this area before leaving.

Thats it for now, so until the next post, take care and see you then.....................