Aden Lava Flow Wilderness Study Area

Aden Lava Flow Wilderness Study Area is a BLM-managed landscape 20 miles southwest of Las Cruces in Dona Ana County, New Mexico, within the Chihuahuan Desert. The area features basalt lava flows with volcanic craters, pressure ridges, lava tubes, and steep-walled depressions up to 100 feet wide. Coppice sand dunes, grasslands, and desert shrubs including mesquite and creosote cover the terrain, with cacti and yucca vegetation on the lava flow. Wildlife includes numerous bats, rock pocket mice, and black-tailed rattlesnakes sheltering in lava crevices and vent tubes.