June 20, 2009: New Mexico Trip Day 4
	June 18, 2009: New Mexico Trip Day 2
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On the Jemez Mountain Trail: Driving to Jemez Falls

We were up and had the campsite struck by about nine-thirty, and headed out of Bandelier back west on New Mexico Highway 4, heading towards the Jemez Falls trailhead.

At the Las Conchas Fishing Access

We stopped at a couple of overlooks on the way up into the Jemez Mountains, and soon passed the Valle Grande Caldera. We noted that it seemed to be open, so we thought we might stop there on the way back east later in the morning.

We next stopped at what we thought might be the trailhead for a hike that we had not done, but found that it was basically just a picnic/fishing area for Las Conchas Creek. Although the creek looked a bit too small, I can only suppose that there is some fishing here. But there was no hiking, so we just took a few pictures before heading on towards Jemez Falls. I have put thumbnail images for some of these below; click on them to view the full-size pictures:

After spending just a bit of time here, we got back in the RAV4 and headed east along Highway 4 towards the Jemez Falls Campground and trailhead.

On the Jemez Mountain Trail: Hiking to Jemez Falls

Diagram of This Morning's Hikes

We are planning on doing a couple of hikes this morning, and if we see anything interesting that we haven't done, we might stop in and try it. One hike we want to do is the hike to Jemez Falls. This was the same hike that was cut short some years ago when we were here with Ron and Prudence, and Ron fell and nearly sliced his ear off. We had to hotfoot it back up the trail and take Ron the the emergency room in Los Alamos, so we never did get to the falls themselves.

We also wanted to check out the San Antonio Hot Springs, but we were going to have to stop somewhere to ask about them.

We also thought that we might do more of a hike that we had done once before- the Las Conchas Trail. But our first stop would be for Jemez Falls. We continued eastward on Highway 4 until we came to the entrance for the Jemez Falls Campground. The trailhead for the Jemez Falls trail is at the end of the campground area. We drove in, parked, and set off on our hike down to the falls.

The hike along the Jemez Falls Trail is a relatively short one- only about half a mile to the falls. There is a nice overlook for Jemez Falls, and you can also climb down nearer the falls to get a better look. A bit upstream from the large falls is another small set of falls, and we went off to investigate those, too.

When we got to the overlook, just a ways beyond where Ron had fallen, we were treated to some pretty good views of these 50-foot falls. We took some pictures of the falls from here, and also took pictures of each other here at the overlook. You can have a look at these pictures by clicking on the thumbnail images at right.

Then we went climbing around near the falls. Both Fred and I went down to the top of the rocks above the main falls, coming around from behind them. (There, we found a couple of fishermen angling in the stream above the falls.) We got some views looking down the falls. We also walked along the stream for a ways heading upstream until we came to the second, 10-foot set of falls. Finally, we got some more pictures of the main falls as we headed back up to the overlook. I've put thumbnails for some of these pictures below; click on them to view the full-size images:

I also made a movie of Jemez Falls and you can watch that movie with the player below:

The Jemez Falls Trail This movie of Jemez Falls was made from the overlook at the bottom of the trail.

On the Jemez Mountain Trail: The Las Conchas Trail

Diagram of This Morning's Hikes

When we were done at Jemez Falls, we continued eastward on Highway 4, looking for some signs that would indicate where the San Antonio Hot Springs might be. We finally decided to stop in to the Redondo Campground to see if anyone there knew how to get to them. We ended up talking to the Campground Host(ess), and we found out from her that the trail to the springs began at the end of a terrible five-mile dirt road, which hadn't been maintained in quite some time. We were a little leery of getting into driving trouble, so we decided to finesse the hot springs.

We left the Redondo Campground and headed back west on Highway 4. We knew we wanted to stop at Valle Grande, but we came across the Las Conchas Trail first, so we stopped to walk along it for a ways.

The parking area for the Las Conchas Trail is located in a beautiful valley that has a gentle stream running through it. On the south side of the road there is a private residence/farm, and there were some horses grazing by Las Conchas Creek in the verdant meadow; the trail begins on the north side. This is a popular spot for a number of reasons, and it is usually hard to find a place to park. Today was unusually busy, and shortly after starting out from the trailhead, we found out why.

In addition to the normal complement of hikers, two other activities were going on. The first was some sort of group doing rock climbing and rapelling on the face of a 100‑foot cliff quite near the beginning of the trail. Fred took a picture of the rock climbers, who seemed to be kids under the supervision of five or six adults. They had all the equipment needed, and appeared to be using pitons that had already been driven into the cliff face. Watch Fred's movie of them using the player below:

Las Conchas Creek Trail; Climbing Kids Fred took this movie of the kids who were rock climbing, and he also took in the creek and surrounding scenery.

The other group, which was much larger, seemed at first to be some sort of Boy Scout troop, but on closer look they were wearing uniforms that looked much more like Army uniforms than scout paraphernalia. And there seemed to be quite a few of them- from teen-agers up through twentysomethings- and all male. They were practicing all kinds of trail skills- such as building rope bridges across the stream and erecting zip lines. You can watch my movie of some of them using the zip line using the player below:

Las Conchas Creek Trail; Paramilitary Zipliners The zipliners might be hard to see; they are coming from the top of the rock at the right of the picture, and using the zip line to cross Las Conchas Creek.

Actually, they seemed so much like a military group that I found myself thinking that the only thing that was missing were weapons.

My curiosity got the better of me on the way back from our short hike along the trail, and I asked one of the twentysomethings what the group was all about. What I found out, which seems a little disturbing looking back on it, is that the group was religious in nature, and was practicing its skills for some coming adverse event. The young fellow I talked to did not seem at all conspiratorial, but seemed to indicate that the Lord (theirs, anyway) wanted them to be prepared to fight for... what, I was not exactly sure. That's why it was disturbing. Had this been the 1950s, when the struggle against godless Communism was on everyone's mind (and possible invasion on the mind of some), the whole thing might have been less worrisome. (While I was talking with the young man, Fred was taking some of the pictures that you can find thumbnail images for at left. Click on them to view the full-size pictures.)

The fellow seemed quite proud of his patches and insignia, one of which he explained was similar to, but not the same as, the patch worn by Special Forces members in the US Army. One other patch identified him as Church member, although which Church, exactly, wasn't clear. He seemed very much in earnest, and not at all antagonistic. His attitude seemed to be that he would have been surprised to learn that not all Christians were making the same kind of preparations as was his own group. As I said, I found the explanation as unsettling as the presence of these paramilitary people on the beautiful trail, and I walked away unavoidably humming "Onward Christian Soldiers" to myself.

When we got back to the trailhead, it was lunchtime, so we made sandwiches and drinks and sat underneath some pine trees near the beginning of the trail to eat. While we were doing so, I took a picture of Fred eating lunch and he took a picture of me.

We have been on this trail before; the last time, we went much further than we did today, but it was a pleasant walk in the warm morning sun. Below are some thumbnail images for the best of the pictures we took today along the Las Conchas Trail. Click on them to view the full-size images:

The Las Conchas Trail Here is a movie of the peaceful valley through which the Las Conchas Creek flows and the trail parallels.

On the Jemez Mountain Trail: Valles Caldera National Preserve

The Valles Caldera Trust was created by the Valles Caldera Preservation Act of 2000 to preserve and protect the historic Baca Ranch of New Mexico’s Jemez Mountains. The groundbreaking legislation that provided for the federal purchase of this 89,000-acre ranch nestled inside a volcanic caldera also created a unique experiment in public land management. The entire caldera an surrounding land was purchased for the sum of $101 million.

A nine-member board of trustees is responsible for the protection and development of the Valles Caldera National Preserve. Seven of its members are appointed by the President of the United States. In addition, the current Superintendent of nearby Bandelier National Monument and the Forest Supervisor of the Santa Fe National Forest also serve on the board. All board decisions are made in public meetings.

In August of 2002, the management authority for the new piece of public land was transferred to the Valles Caldera Trust. With the prospect of the opportunities presented by a blank slate, the board began its work. This work includes continuing ranch operations while opening the preserve to visitors. The Trust is using science-based adaptive management to inform its management and make decisions on the preserve.

Today, the Valles Caldera National Preserve and the Valles Caldera Trust are still works in progress. With a small but creative staff, they’re working to find ways to meaningfully include the public in the development of our programs and planning. One of the things they do is allow visitors to come into the caldera and learn more about the operation of these public lands. That's what we planned to do today. We'd driven by here a number of times; this will be the first time we have actually entered the caldera.

When we left the Las Conchas Trail, we continued back east on Highway 4, eventually coming to the entrance for the Valles Caldera National Preserve. We turned north off the highway onto the dirt road that descended into the caldera. It was about a mile and a half until we reached the Visitor Center.

No sooner had we arrived at the Visitor Center than one of the staff asked us if we wanted to go on the next 45-minute tour; she was ready to go and we could join another couple if we wished. So we quickly bought two tickets, piled into her van, and she headed off down the dirt road heading north to the valley wall. On the way across the valley floor, we got some good views of the caldera and some of the elk that call Valle Grande home. You can have a look at these pictures if you click on the thumbnail images below:

The ride around the caldera with our guide was certainly interesting, and she took time to explain quite a bit about the history, the ecology and the management of the caldera.

At the Valle Grande Caldera Here is a movie that I made of our guide explaining the geology and history of the caldera. It was typical of the running commentary that she gave us as we drove through the valley.

As we drove around, and when we stopped at a point on the caldera wall where we were in old growth forest, Fred and I took a good many pictures. Thumbnail images for some of the best of them are below. Have a look at them by clicking on those thumbnails:

We returned to the small visitor center about an hour later, and Fred and I headed off back up to Highway 4. If you will look again at the aerial view above, you will see that in the bottom of the valley there is an area that is wetter than the rest of the valley, and is, perhaps, a shallow creek that flows all the time; today there was a good deal of water. We stopped the car right at the small bridge that crosses this area.

At the Valle Grande Caldera Here is a movie that will give you a 360-degree panorama of the entire caldera, taken from this lowest point in the valley.

We also took five more good pictures from this point on this beautiful afternoon, and if you will click on the thumbnail images below, you can see the full-size pictures:

We got back to the highway and drove just a short distance further east to the overlook point for Valle Grande. Fred set up the tripod and we got the shot that you can see at left. The inscription on the sign reads:

"About one million years ago, the magnificent valley before you was formed by collapse, after a series of tremendous volcanic eruptions ejected a volume of material more than 500 times greater than the May 1980 eruptions of Mt. St. Helens. This event climaxed more than 13 million years of volcanism in the Jemez Mountains. Minor volumes of magma, leaking to the surface as recently as 50,000 years ago, formed the dome-like hills between you and the skyline to the north, which is the opposite wall of the enormous Valles Caldera. the heat from young volcanism makes this area attractive for geothermal energy."

The Valle Grande Caldera While we were on the roadside above the caldera, I took one last movie of the beautiful panorama of the Valles Grande Caldera.

Now we were done for today in the Jemez Mountains, so we headed off towards Chama, New Mexico.

At Ghost Ranch: The Box Canyon Trail

As it turned out, our next stop was somewhat unplanned. We had intended to drive directly to Chama, NM, where we had a hotel reservation for the evening. Possibly, we thought, we might do a hike at Heron Lake State Park, just south of Chama. We began by taking Highway 4 back to Los Alamos, and then Highway 502 down towards Espanola. As I was driving down out of the Jemez Mountains, Fred took some pictures of the scenery. Click on the thumbnail images below to view:

The road began to level off into Espanola, where we stopped for gas and some frozen yogurt. Then we were on US Highway 84 heading north from Espanola. Click on the thumbnails below to see some images of this part of the drive:

With Fred driving now, we continued north, and the terrain changed to stark red cliffs. I took some pictures of the passing scenery, and you can click the thumbnails below to view them:

I had just finished taking those last pictures when we passed a roadside visitor center for Ghost Ranch, a place Fred had seen mentioned on the Internet when he was doing the planning for this trip. We made a U-turn and went into the Visitor Center to get some information. We found out that there were some good hikes we could do on Ghost Ranch, which is nominally a Presbyterian Retreat and Conference Center but used by all kinds of groups throughout the year. The couple at the Visitor Center told us about a couple of hikes. The only request that Ghost Ranch seemed to make was that we check in at the main office on the ranch to let them know that we would be doing one hike or another. This was just for safety's sake, we were told, and it seemed a prudent thing to do. So we left the Visitor Center and backtracked about two miles to the actual entrance to the ranch, drove in and found the office without any trouble. We wouldn't have taken a picture of the office but for the beautiful painted horse statue that stood out front.

I checked in with the office folks, who were as nice as they could be, and also checked on what kind of accommodations we might find here for tomorrow night after our train ride in Chama. There were a couple hundred Unitarians visiting, we were told, but still there would be tent spaces if we wanted to stay. We made a mental note about that, I changed into my hiking shorts, and we headed off to the southwest corner of the ranch to find the trailhead for the Box Canyon Trail.

As you can see on the diagram at right, to get to the Box Canyon Trail we had to drive through the ranch to the extreme northeast corner. There, we found a place to park the car and followed the signs for the Box Canyon Trail. This place reminded me somewhat of Montreat, another Presbyterian conference center that was also surrounded by mountains and a few good marked trails. Of course, that was in the Appalachians- a much different ecosystem than here in the high desert.

For the first part of the trail, we followed a wide path- almost a road- and we did see some evidence that vehicles had driven along it for a half-mile or so. But then the wide path ended and the actual trail began. Along this first part of the trail, the views were mostly of the surrounding mesas including one, Kitchen Mesa, that had its own five-mile trail up to the top. One of these days we will have to do that trail. So this first collection of pictures is all from the first half-mile of the Box Canyon trail; click on the thumbnail images below to have a look at the pictures:

The Box Canyon Trail at Ghost Ranch Here is a movie of the two of us starting out on the Box Canyon Trail here at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico.

I think it might be interesting for you to see an aerial view of the area covered by the Box Canyon Trail, so, courtesy of Google Maps, I have put one below. The resolution out here in the middle of nowhere is not that great, so this is as far as I zoomed in. I have marked some of the landmarks for you.

When we got to the actual trail, we found ourselves descending an embankment and arriving at the small creek that runs through Box Canyon. From that point, the trail was never very far from the small stream. The trail crisscrossed the stream quite a few times as we worked our way up the canyon; it was first on one side then on the other. Most times, the crossings were stepping stones across the narrow watercourse. At one point, we encountered a viaduct that had been built overhead, and we could hear water traveling through it. Someone had diverted the stream further up the canyon (where it was at a higher level) so it would flow through the viaduct. Where the water went, we were not sure.

After about a mile, we came to a junction where two streams came together. We bypassed the side rivulet and continued up the main (or what we thought was the main) stream. At one point, we had to climb over a large rock to continue the trail; previous hikers had thoughtfully attached a knotted rope to the top of the rock, so you could pull yourself up and let yourself down.

I supposed we walked a mile and a half along the stream before it pretty much petered out. I would imagine that had we continued up the canyon we would eventually have had to start ascending steeply up the side of the mesa at the rear of the canyon, but we decided we'd seen the best and we retraced our path to the point where the side stream came in. We went up that side stream just fifty or a hundred feet before it, too, got too small to be of interest. I took a movie of the tiny waterfall up this side stream, and you can watch that movie using the player below:

Below are some thumbnail images for more of the pictures we took along the Box Canyon Trail. Click on those thumbnails to view the full-size pictures:

When we got back to the beginning of the trail, we took a bit of a wrong turn, and found ourselves going back a slightly different way, and we saw a small lake that we hadn't seen before. It would seem, we thought, that this is where the water going through the aqueduct ended up, but we didn't investigate to make sure. As we were walking back to the vehicle, we took some more pictures of the surrounding mesas in the early evening light. You can compare these with the ones taken earlier when the sun was much higher. Click on the thumbnail images below to view the full-size images:

Finally, I made one more movie as we came back to the beginning of the trail, showing the mesas all around, and you can watch that movie using the player below:

We got back in the vehicle and drove back out the entrance road to the ranch. Just before reaching the highway, we got a good view of the Abiquiu Reservoir across on the west side of the highway. When we got to the highway, we turned north for our drive to Chama.

Driving to Chama, New Mexico

Getting to Chama was just another fifty miles up US Highway 84; we arrived there just before eight.

We had reservations at a small local place called the Station Inn. It was a nice room- almost like a B&B. It had the virtue of being right across the street from the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railway that we would be riding tomorrow. When we got settled in the room, I got out the blender and made us some frozen drinks. You can see me at work here. It was a nice ending to an energetic day.

We got a recommendation from the woman at the front desk and had dinner at the High Country Restaurant about two miles south of the Inn on NM 17. We came back to the Inn, walked around town for a while to scope out where we would go tomorrow, and then turned in.

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	June 20, 2009: New Mexico Trip Day 4
	June 18, 2009: New Mexico Trip Day 2
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