A spin around Valles Caldera

Morning fog lifts from Valles Caldera

The Pajarito Plateau is replete with wonders that surround the town of Los Alamos. As part of the Jemez Mountains, it runs from the Rio Grande past many other surprises, with deep canyons that hide the cliff dwellings protected by Bandelier National Monument. 

At its western edge, the Sierra de los Valles separate Los Alamos from Valles Caldera. Crossing the mountains from Los Alamos to Valles Caldera seems simple enough by mileage count. But the first right into Santa Fe National Forest sends the road up a series of steep switchbacks and curves that run along steep drop-offs with spectacular views of the mountains and nearby canyons. Damage from two major forest fires since 2000 left the trees blackened and spindly, with new forest slowly rising beneath them. 

Fire-scorched dome

On a chilly Saturday morning, Valles Caldera National Preserve announces its arrival with fog coating the volcanic valley. The caldera is the remains of a collapsed 14,000-foot volcano. The caldera includes many volcanic domes, which appear as tree-covered mountains across the high-altitude meadows (valles in Spanish). 

The highest of the volcanic domes, Redondo Peak, reaches above 11,000 feet. The pine-coated domes break up the valleys, which hide small creeks and ponds among their dry grasses. In wetter centuries, a lake covered the caldera, and it’s easy to picture the volcanic domes as islands in that lake. 

Most of the trails are hidden among the volcanic domes. Valles Caldera also houses some thermal features – some tried to turn it into a hot springs resort, others weighed it as a site for geothermal energy. But the prospects for a resort collapsed due to the high acidity of the thermal features, which are as inhospitable as those in Yellowstone National Park. 

Valles Caldera has been heavily logged and aside from the Historic Forest, the old-growth forest is gone. A sheepherding operation also left heavy damage in the caldera. By the time we reached the preserve’s Cabin District, the last fog burnt off. The cabin district includes a number of historic cabins from past ranching operations. 

They still have residents, but one draws interest from a prominent role. The cabin with two front doors appeared as the home of Absaroka County Sheriff Walt Longmire in the television series Longmire. Due to generous filming tax cuts, New Mexico played stand-in for Wyoming’s fictional Absaroka County. Views from all the cabins are spectacular, ranging across the caldera. 

Longmire's cabin

The famous herds of elk were elsewhere this morning. Wildlife was mostly limited to birds (mountain bluebirds) and burrow-dwelling mammals (ground squirrels, ground hogs). An occasional bird of prey circled in the currents above the caldera, waiting to swoop down on rodents crossing the grassy expanse. 

Ground squirrel

 At the backcountry gate, we stopped to talk with the ranger cleaning the locks. He drew an audience of ground squirrels and had to shoo them off when they tried to eat the graphite he was using. 

 Only New Mexio Route 4 along the preserve’s southern boundary is paved. Gravel roads reach into the interior, providing access for hiking, hunting, and fishing. The national preserve designation allows for those recreation uses of the caldera. 

 Domes in the preserve’s interior showed heavy damage from the wildfires. Some had spare vegetation, just the charred groves of aspens and ponderosa pines. Protection means nature still needs decades to heal. 

The national forest outside southwest of the caldera appeared much healthier. Heavy traffic arrived at the Las Conchas Trailhead, where stunning scenery drew fishers, climbers, hikers, and day trippers escaping the city. The flat trail follows the East Fork of the Jemez River up into the national forest. The river flowed assertively across a rocky flood plain hemmed by a series of intricate rock formations. 

Crags above the Las Conchas Trail

East Fork of the Jemez River

As a popular stop, it was hard to escape people, but the range of different activities led the crowds to ease up a half-mile from the parking lot. 

If I come back, Los Conchas will be the first stop in the morning instead of waiting in the queue for park rangers to unlock the Valles Caldera gate. This was a land of contradictions - the lush national forest abutted the stark terrain of the caldera. Fisherman could stop off the road and fish, not venture deep miles into the backcountry. 

Those contrasts make Valles Caldera worth the winding drive on the plateau’s edge to reach these places where nature’s forces have shaped the land.