Mount Taylor from the west end of Acoma Pueblo
Landform
A dormant stratovolcano in the northern San Mateo Mountains — forest and meadow on an eroded cone, the high point of Cibola National Forest, above the lava of El Malpais.
Field note
Mount Taylor stands northeast of Grants, the high point of the northern San Mateo Mountains and of Cibola National Forest. It is a dormant stratovolcano. The summit mark is 11,305 feet on the current survey. Older maps still print 11,301. Navajo people call it Tsoodził, the turquoise mountain, the southern one of the four sacred mountains. Acoma, Laguna, Zuni, and the Hopi hold the mountain sacred too. The Gooseberry Springs Trail is the usual walk, from Forest Road 193 about five miles off New Mexico 547, on the Mt. Taylor Ranger District. The trailhead has no water. The path climbs about 2,000 feet through pine and aspen, then meadow, to the top. Grants is the nearest town. El Malpais is the lava south of town. Cabezon Peak is a plug in the same volcanic field. This plate is Mount Taylor near Grants, not Cabezon Peak and not El Malpais.
Mount Taylor is the stratovolcano northeast of Grants, high point of Cibola National Forest. The Gooseberry Springs Trail climbs it. Grants is the town. El Malpais is the lava to the south. This plate is Mount Taylor, not Cabezon Peak and not the malpais.
