Mt Taylor New Mexico

Mt. Taylor in New Mexico

May 6, 2007.

We are staying in the Blue Spruce RV Park $13.50 for 50-amps, water & Cable TV with central dump. Blue Spruce is located on the south west corner of the I-40 exit 81 intersection.

This was our last day in Grants and we took the opportunity to drive up and into the Mt. Taylor area. Mt. Taylor is one of the highest points in New Mexico. I will show you another picture of Mt. Taylor from Sandia Peak in Albuquerque over 60-miles east of Mt. Taylor in a later travelogue. The Mt. Taylor footprint and awesome height make it visible from a large portion of New Mexico.

Mt Taylor

As we pulled out of Blue Spruce RV-Park Mt. Taylor was staring at us in all its glory. It has been snowing for several days. It is not sticking below 7,000 feet but it appears to be sticking at the higher elevations of 11,300 foot Mt. Taylor.

Mt Taylor was called Cebolleta (tender onion) by the Spanish. It's name was changed in 1894 in honor of then president Zachary Taylor.

Mt Taylor is a stratovolcano, or composite volcano. Stratovolcanos are tall, conical volcanos built up by many layers (strata) of hardened lava, pumice, and volcanic ash. Stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile. Lava that flows from stratovolcanoes typically cools and hardens before spreading far.

Mount Taylor was active from 3.3 to 1.5 million years ago. It is surrounded by a field of smaller inactive volcanoes that stretch to the south. We have an earlier travel log that covered the Bandera Cinder Cone which is one of the volcanos in this field. Another one of our travel logs dealt with many of the other cinder cones in this field. Repeated eruptions built lava domes and produced lava flows, ash plumes, and mudflows. The mountain is surrounded by a great volume of volcanic debris, suggesting multiple major eruptions.

We headed northeast out of Grants on SR-547 (Lobo Canyon Road) climbing, continuously climbing as we got closer and closer to Mt. Taylor.

Intrusion of igneous rock created this dike & liccolith

While still in Grants we begin the grueling climb. Not long out of Grants we pass this fantastic piece of geology. Now mind you I am no geologist but we have been visually inspecting western geology for 6-years now and we have seen this often enough to know that it is an intrusion of molten lava (the dark rock) while deep in the earth, into a crack in overlying rock, in this case sandstone (the light colored rock). This exposure is as good at showing this as any example in a geology book. You can see the dike that intruded from the center of the earth as molten lava in the right center of this picture. When it intruded into the sandstone other layers of sandstone were still between this intrusion and the surface. None the less this dike intruded into a vertical crack in the sandstone then began to spread out horizontally in a horizontal crack called a sill or liccolith. The overlying sandstone has eroded away leaving only this dike and the very hard licolith (igneous rock that spread out horizontally in that crack between two layers of sedimentary rock). It now serves as a cap rock protecting the much softer sandstone under it. This is an extremely small example of how mountains are formed when molten lava uplifts sedimentary layers as it makes its way to the surface.

Intrusion of igneous rock created this dike & liccolith

This example of a dike and intrusion is so awesome I just had to show you a close-up so you can better see the vertical dike that intruded in the vertical crack in the light colored sandstone.

An intrusion is created when molten (igneous) rock intrudes into older rock (in this case sedimentary sandstone) then hardens.

Keep in mind that this vertical dike as well as the horizontal parts "liccolith" cooled while underground, resulting in igneous rock that is different from molten rock that is exposed to the atmosphere while it is still molten and cools rapidly. The time spent cooling results in different types of igneous rock.

This is a pictorial explaination of the liccolith you see in the above pictures

Look closely at the above pictures of the liccolith and you can see the dike that delivered the molten rock to the area between two layers of sedimentary rock where the liquid rock intruded then cooled leaving behind this extremly hard igneous rock.

Mt Taylor

Keep in mind that we are driving toward Mt. Taylor and keep getting a fleeting glimpse of our goal.

Mt Taylor

We continue to climb in elevation and catch another glimpse of snow covered Mt. Taylor.

Mt Taylor road cut

Road cuts are a part of climbing mountains and this one is no exception.

View of valley west of Mt Taylor

After all this climbing we pop out into a clearing where we get this magnificent view, to the west, of a wonderful valley stretching to the west of Mt. Taylor.

Pines and snow on Mt Taylor

As we climb more and more snow is sticking.

Pines and snow on Mt Taylor

Joyce snapped this picture of snow on what looks like a small ponderosa pine.

Pines and snow on Mt Taylor

Pines and snow on the slopes of Mt. Taylor as we get above the 7,000 foot level.

Aspen trees on Mt Taylor

Natural stands of aspen are occurring at the higher elevations.

Snow on Mt Taylor

Note that the aspen trees have not budded out yet.

Snow on Mt Taylor

A roadcut complete with snow while we are still above 7,000 feet.

Snow on Mt Taylor

Somewhere on the western slope of Mt. Taylor the road unceremoniously changes names and becomes SR 197 and or SR 334 as we make our way down to the small mining community of San Mateo.

Sandstone bluffs and mesa to the southwest of Mt Taylor

As we are making our way down to the valley west of Mt. Taylor we begin to get glimpses of the valley and magnificent sandstone mesas that border the western edge of that valley.

Old cinder cone volcano southwest of Mt Taylor

By this time we are 20 or so miles west of Mt. Taylor. We stopped and took this picture looking to the south. The community in the valley is San Mateo while the volcanic cone in the distance is probably Bandera Crater located some 25-miles south of Grants and I-40.

Note the mine derricks located above underground mine shafts. If you still have not spotted those mine derricks they are located a little below the center of the picture with a large tan building between them. That is a large uranium mine that is currently closed until uranium prices improve. I will share some better pictures of this uranium mine and equipment later in this travelogue.

Old cinder cone volcano

This is an old cinder cone volcano visible to the southwest of Mt. Taylor. I suspect this is the Bandera Cinder Cone which we wrote about in a previous travel log.

Sandstone bluff and mesa in distance

Sandstone mesas and cliffs on the western edge of the valley as seen from Mt Taylor.

Sandstone bluff and mesa in distance

We have been dogging down this steep grade for the last 15 to 20-miles and we still have not reached the valley.

Uranium-vanadium mine at base of Mt Taylor

We finally reached the small town of San Mateo and drove out to the closed uranium mine. This is one of the derricks situated above one of the mine shafts.

Mount Taylor is very rich in a uranium-vanadium bearing mineral, and was mined extensively for it from 1979 to 1990.

Uuranium mines in this area have produced over thirteen million tons of uranium ore since 1945.

Tailings from a uranium-vanadium mine at base of Mt Taylor

The light colored material is mine tailings consisting of mined rock remaining after the uranium has been removed.

Uranium-vanadium mine at base of Mt Taylor

I think this is the mine that used the large drilling bit you saw a picture when we visited the mining museum in downtown Grants a few days ago.

Main Street San Mateo, New Mexico

This is a scene on main street in San Mateo. It is a very small community with only a few very old adobe homes remaining after experiencing better times.

San Mateo Catholic church in San Mateo, New Mexico

This is the San Mateo Catholic church, by far the best looking building in town.

Sandstone cliff protected by hard caprock

I included this picture of a sandstone cliff to show the many different layers of sedimentary rock.

The layer of sandstone on top is called a caprock. It is very hard material and is protecting the underlying sedimentary layers from erosion.

Volcanic ash deposited on top of much older sandstone

The gray rock is a layer of volcanic ash that at one time formed a layer of sediment. It is now crumbling and mixing with the much older sandstone sediments.

On the plain southwest of Mt Taylor where old and new meet

New and old technology meet. The old reliable windmill with a modern steel holding tank.

Click here for more New Mexico Travel Adventures

Until next time remember how good life is.

Mike & Joyce Hendrix