Exploring Hidden Caves in the East Potrillo Mountains, New Mexico

[@seyersusej8329]

As someone from El Paso, I know that there are volcanic craters on that same road, but closer to El Paso. In the beginning of the 20th century, there was a discovery of a giant ground sloth in a cavern covered in bat guano. The Peabody Museum has that corpse now, but it shows you how interesting our corner of the world is geologically. Good work on your videos though!

[@ABANDONED_UNDERGROUND]

Thank you, I really appreciate it! I've been to all of the maar volcanoes in that area. It's really cool scenery and geology. Rappelling down the fumerole at Aden Crater has been on my bucket list for a while. The giant ground sloth that was mummified by the bat guano was discovered by guano miners, I believe, either in the 1920s or 1940s.

[@ZiaMountainAdventures]

Man, this is cool, the stacked tunnels is really cool looking. Yeah that was a ton of black soot from fire. LOL you are always way cautious with Mark. Good job Mark! Looked pretty tuff terrain. The one Mark was in on 9min54sec had some interesting formation stuff on top. Mark cam, NICE! Great video guys!

[@ABANDONED_UNDERGROUND]

Thanks, Todd! Precious cargo when it comes to my kids! I gotta hold him back sometimes because he's all Gung ho! Lol. Who knows what this place looked like prior to modern visitors 60 years ago?

[@AbandonedMines11]

The petroglyphs were cool! Such a fragile connection to the distant past. Those two-tier caves were an interesting formation. Wonder what caused those? Looked like there wasn’t a lot of room to maneuver outside those caves. It almost looked like it was a sheer drop off, in fact! Must’ve been difficult to get all the way up there. Depending on how difficult it is to access those caves, it might be fun to take some camping supplies up there and spend a couple nights and days camped out in those caves! The Mark cam footage near the end was cool. Nice to see him in your video. 👍

[@ABANDONED_UNDERGROUND]

The petroglyphs were a pretty cool find! It's just a shame that they were somewhat defaced. Those mountains are a tilted fault block of limestone, uplifted by all of the volcanic activity and the Rio Grande rift. I'm carbonic acid from water, and carbon dioxide formed the caves along the jointed areas of the limestone. There are more caves up there, just harder to get to. That area is so close to the border, and will all of the activity going on around here, camping might not be the most prudent decision. It would be a cool spot otherwise. I love Mark's enthusiasm for exploring! He just needs to throttle back a lil, lol! Thanks, Frank!

[@Mark_The_Magnificent]

Very interesting!

[@ABANDONED_UNDERGROUND]

Thank you very much!

[@brianelmore1675]

Just got back from hiking up the East Potrillos yesterday! Climbed to the high point. I was looking for caves- what part of the range were these petroglyphs?

[@ABANDONED_UNDERGROUND]

They're in a remote area on the southwestern side. It may be quicker to hike the mountain bike trail from the east side to get to them. From the summit, you can't really see any caves (there seems to be a few on the west slope).