On the drive to Alamogordo you pass through miles of high desert bounded by mountains. The landscape changes little until suddenly you pass through what looks like a charred moonscape known as the Valley of Fires. Highway 380 cuts across a huge lava flow four to six miles wide, 160 feet thick and covering 125 square miles. The lava flow dates back about 5,000 years and is considered to be one of the youngest lava flows in the continental United States.