Desert Ice Box - Grants, New Mexico - Ice-Cold Cave in the Badlands

Located on the Continental Divide in the Badlands of New Mexico, the Desert Ice Box is a cavern formed by a collapsed lava tube from an ancient volcano. Rain water seeping into the cave has frozen over many centuries, and the rock walls provide such good insulation that the ice never melts.

Today, the cave floor is 20 feet thick with frozen water, the oldest of which dates back to 1000 BC. Layers of algae growing beneath the surface create an eerie blue-green glow when struck by sunlight. The walls of the cave are covered with ice up to 12 feet high, and temperatures in the chilly chamber never exceed 31 degrees.

Early settlers in the region used to come to the Desert Ice Box to bring home chunks of the ice in wagons loaded with sawdust. For a while, a local tavern near the cavern served up ice-cold beer, chilled inside the frosty formation.

Access to the Desert Ice Box is by trail from the Ice Caves Trading Post, located off State Highway 53 southwest of Grants, New Mexico 87020. The trading post, which sells handmade jewelry, pottery, rugs, and other Native American arts and crafts, has 1,200-year-old Anasazi stone tools of display and can arranged guided tours of the cave.