This page features several topics that may be appropriate for informational signs that could be placed along the trail to Sandia Cave as part of Phase Three. The photos were taken while walking up to the cave on the trail, and may be of interest to our many cave visitors. You are encouraged to suggest both appropriate text for these small signs and also to suggest additional topics of interest.

If you see something like these triangular boxes hanging from the trees in the parking lot area, please leave them in place. They are part of an insect study.

Did Bark Beetles damage this pine tree?

Sandia Cave is located in the east wall of Las Huertas Canyon in Madera Limestone of Pennsylvanian age (circa 300 million years ago). Look closely at these tilting beds in these layers of limestone and you will notice the slight tilt that is associated with the dipping cave passage in Sandia Cave.

Lechuguilla is an agave species of cactus that typically grows in Calcareous or limestone soils. After the plant sends up a central stalk and flowers, it dies. The flowers provide food for insects, bats and some birds.

This tall pine was apparently killed by lightning. The sign on the lower part of the tree was installed by the Sandia Grotto after the tree died, and provides an internet link that provides additional information on Sandia Cave and the graffiti removal project during 2015. The Sandia Grotto is the local chapter of the National Speleological Society and visitors interested in caves are welcome at the monthly meetings.

The Sandia Mountains are a fault block range, on the eastern edge of the Rio Grande Rift Valley. Below this trail in Las Huertas Canyon there is a small stream, fed by the waters slowly percolating down from the surface above. You are nearing Sandia Cave, which is located at the top of the steel spiral staircase structure at the end of this trail.