Old Woman. No Shoe.

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Old Woman. No Shoe.

9:09 am, June 7, 2017 by Bob Neinast

My last post was of just the campground at El Malpais. I got there at about 10 in the morning, which left me plenty of time to do an exploration that was on my to-do list. I wanted to visit La Vieja.

La Vieja is Spanish for “old woman”, and La Vieja is a solitary rock formation near the sandstone bluffs on the edge of El Malpais. Here it is on my topo map.

La Vieja Topo Map

On that map, the purple line (with a parking lot at the road) is one end of the Acoma-Zuni Trail. It seemed to me that would be a good place to access La Vieja. Here’s the entrance.

Entrance to Acoma-Zuni Trail

You can see La Vieja off in the distance (just to the right of the entryway and the dead tree).

Being from the East, the ways of the West are a bit different to me. Out east, a fence means “Keep Out” and generally delineates private property. Out West (or at least where I’ve been), fences are quite often on federal lands, and are there to keep cattle in. That’s what this fence is doing.

If you look at the map some more, you’ll see a solid yellow line. To the west of the line is Federal land (El Malpais), and to the right is land belonging to the Acoma tribe. You can also see from the line that a quarter of La Vieja is on Acoma land.

Often, these sorts of landmarks (for lack of a better term) are sacred to the tribes of the area, and I suspected that was the case for La Vieja. (I confirmed that with somebody at the Visitor Center.) So, while I wanted to visit La Vieja, I also did not want to be disrespectful. No climbing; no getting too close. And I also wanted to make sure I did not trespass on Acoma territory.

So, I’ve marked on the map the route I took (out-and-back) in dark green.

Here’s La Vieja while I was still on the Acoma-Zuni Trail (or very close to it).

Distant La Vieja

And I took a shot with me in it as I got closer.

Getting Closer

Looking back at the map, you can see some odd green-brown stippling. That shows where the lava field is. As I got closer to La Vieja, I approached that lava field.

Intervening Lava Field

So, I also got a chance to hike across lava.

There were cacti scattered over the lava, where they got a foothold. They were generally easy to spot and avoid, but there were a few tiny ones waiting for the unwary. (Shown with the handhold of my hiking stick.)