Valles Caldera

When Jeff and I passed by Valles Caldera it was after a long day at the Puye Cliff Dwellings site and a visit to the Nuclear Museum in Los Alamos. We knew we had to go back. Sunday was the day. I always prefer to start early and have a real plan other than "let's go to..." but I was overruled by the sleeping man and we got started late considering what we were going to do.

The drive there was beautiful. We stopped at a flowstone waterfall we hardly noticed coming from the other direction on our last trip. This time we got out and took a look. The flowstone brought back fond memories of our underground adventures in Puerto Rico (sort of). The rock looked like a wasp's nest. We reached the entrance to the preserve and on the long drive in toward the speck of a visitor's center we stopped and watched two coyotes trotting across the expanse. One kept dropping something and picking it back up before running some more. Next we saw Prairie Dogs and honestly they still are the highlight of the trip for me! Prairie dogs everywhere...lots of prairie dog towns all day with hawks and eagles circling around. This is a fabulous place to visit but one you can not just show up at randomly and expect to do what you want. 89,000 acres is a lot of area. There are three free trails that are pretty short and flat so we opted for the "backcountry hiking" which was $10 bucks each but well worth it! This is a National Reserve that is pretty restrictive about how many people are around and how those people get around. The shuttle will take you into the back country (as in 1 1/2 hours back) and drop you off at a trail and then when it comes back around (or another shuttle comes) they will pick you up where you say you will be or I suppose anywhere along the road on their set route. They have you put a card inside your car with names, phone number and destination etc. They have that information inside the visitor center. The shuttle drivers have it. Surprisingly, it IS needed! On Sunday there were 3 other hikers and a couple of people just on the van tour (it is over 2 hours in the van to get out to any of the trails and back). The first shuttle goes out at 8:30am and the last is at 2:30 and only takes mountain bikers and sightseers out and picks up everyone else. Your hike needs to be finished as early as 3:40 or at the latest 5:20 depending on which trail you take and where you come out. The schedule is set and when you get out there you understand why! We got there and got on the 11:30 shuttle and after a 4 mile hike got back when the preserve was closing - 5:45. The van driver provided a lot of information about the geology and history of the land. We only saw the three other hikers as we crossed on the trail - they went down and we went up. On the van drive to the trail we saw elk. This area can only be described as "huge." There are 80 miles of trails and we we chose one that took us on a really wide almost like a grassy road trail through a canyon and past a couple bubbling sulfur smelling ponds. They were not warm but you could see the bubbling and it was really neat. It smelled like sulfur on and off on the low parts of the trail. The temperature was pretty cool which was surprising for us.





There were wild iris blooming and the other hikers said they saw over 30 different types of wild flowers. They saw a bear. We didn't. The weather changed and we all got sprinkled on and thought the thunder was going to bring a downpour but it didn't. The light and clouds moving over the caldera were amazing and I really want to put in for the lottery they have for photographers - 30 bucks and if your name is drawn you get 3 days with a companion in the park to take your own car, camp and photograph to your hearts content at all hours. Seeing the sun come up and set would be just amazing and on a full moon? Oh well, some later date.


We had to wait for the shuttle for 40 minutes or so but that was ok - it wasn't raining! We both are learning to bring layers of clothes. We both had light jackets and that was a good thing! No one was there. Just us for hours. On the shuttle trip back we heard all about the other peoples' hike and did some chatting. The ride back was long but interesting. Then we went into the visitor's center and got some coffee and a coke. Considering how far out this place is it appears to be well thought out. The visitor's center is prepared for the underprepared with sweatshirts, fleece, sunscreen, hats and snacks/drinks for sale. Nice touch to have hot chocolate, coffee, tea and cider available. The staff is very knowledgeable about the area but there are almost too many choice of things to do. The Preserve is open to people but pretty controlled and they are opening more trails up (there are 80 miles of hiking and biking trails) and offering snowshoeing, skiing, sleigh rides, photo adventures, and a bunch of other stuff but to limited amounts of people. The site itself really keeps things limited since people are not allowed to just drive around on their own. They are slowly introducing a little of this and are going to see how behaved people are! Where else can you catch a shuttle to an amazing back country area of a super volcano and bike or hike for miles and then get picked up? Next time we'll bring bikes. So at the end of a long day we did the 1 1/2 to 2 hour drive back stopping at interesting trail heads until we realized we'd never get home if we kept stopping! We did stop at Battleship Rock and want to hike past the waterfall and up to the top at some point. This was not at all what I expected to see when moving to the desert! I am amazed at every turn...so much to do...