Mesa de Maya is a volcanic tableland in southeastern Colorado that rises sharply above the Great Plains and continues southeast into New Mexico and Oklahoma as Black Mesa. Formed by an ancient basaltic lava flow from Piney Mountain, it survived as surrounding softer rock eroded away, leaving steep-sided elevated tablelands. The mesa includes prairie on top, wooded slopes, the headwaters of North Carrizo Creek, and Colorado’s only mesquite habitat, while supporting abundant wildlife. Most of it is private ranchland, with public access mainly limited to an Oklahoma preserve. In the early 2000s, it also became the focus of a major local land-use fight over a proposed military expansion that was canceled in 2013.