Albuquerque Volcanoes - The Three Sisters - 2.0 Miles Round-Trip

The Volcanoes Day Use Area provides visitors with a very different experience from the rest of Petroglyph National Monument. This broad, flat and grassy area is known to locals in Albuquerque as "The Three Sisters" or the "Albuquerque Volcanoes".

Around 150,000 years ago, the Albuquerque area was a hot-bed of volcanic activity. Unlike traditional volcanoes which emit lava and gas from a central vertical vent, the Albuquerque Volcanoes were formed by Fissure Eruptions. These rare eruptions ooze magma out of thin, horizontal cracks in the Earth's crust that extend for miles along a more linear plane (5 miles long in this case). Fissure eruptions leave behind multiple 'cinder cones' which now appear as small hills spread across the Volcanoes Day Use Area. An example of an active fissure eruption is the Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii.

While there are several short named trails such as the JA Volcano / Albuquerque Overlook, Black Volcano Loop and Vulcan Volcano Loop, the area is a criss-cross of trails which encircle the volcanos.

The main trail heads east from the parking lot. It will lead you to the first volcano named JA Volcano, and provides excellent views of Albuquerque and the Sandia Mountains. After reaching the first volcano, you are free to safely make your own way around the other volcanoes.

Do not expect to see petroglyphs on this trail as the Volcanoes Day Use Area provides a different and unique experience compared to the rest of the park.

Ancestral and modern Pueblo peoples believe that hiking to the top of the volcanic cones desecrates this landscape. Please respect this belief by not climbing on or to the top of the volcanoes.