I had the good fortune last week of driving in on the Thompson Ridge Road, FR 106, to Mushroom Basin in the Jemez Mountains . The road is dirt and wasn't bad for a passenger car--a couple of rough spots. There are good views of Redondo and Redondo Border while you're driving in. You access Thompson Ridge Road, FR 106, off NM-4. It's on the right before you get to La Cueva, New Mexico. There's a housing development there--Sulphur Estates, I believe it's called.
I parked at the Santa Fe National Forest boundary and walked 4 miles, approximately, to this beautiful spot in San Antonio Canyon, on Santa Fe National Forest land that is below the west rim of the Valles Caldera. This is literally just outside the Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) boundary fence and near the signed and locked gate that forbids you from entering the Preserve. The sign says temporarily closed to the public and has said that for 7 years now. It's odd but in the Preserve, San Antonio Canyon is called Valle San Antonio and here, it's just plain old San Antonio Canyon. This place is west of the westernmost ring fracture dome of the Valles Caldera, San Antonio Mountain but is still within the topographic rim of the Valles Caldera.
In the photo above, San Antonio Creek is downhill and not visible. FR 376, that you access off NM-126, outside La Cueva, is across the creek . If you notice the opposite hillside, on the left where there are some gray, leafless aspens, there is a road, barely visible, that goes up out of San Antonio Canyon to FR 144. (FR 144 is also accessed off NM-126, not far past the turn off for FR 376.) If you walk that road up to the top, you will be on the west rim of the Valles Caldera. Since it's on forest service land, you're allowed to walk on it without paying money or making a reservation. There is a single track motorbike trail that runs along the Valles Caldera west rim, paralleling FR 144. The motorbike trail, though, tends to waver all over the place to avoid obstacles like grazing allotment fences and drainages. It sometimes seems to go on and on and is very steep and can be rutted on uphill sections.
This is looking across the VCNP fence toward the northwest rim of the Valles Caldera. A lot of the northwest rim is on VCNP land and is heavily wooded. From the northwest rim, you can see close up views of Cerro Seco and San Antonio Mountain, two of the ring fracture domes of the Valles Caldera, and also Redondo.
I like this area because it's isolated, there's not a lot of people on a weekday at least, and it's peaceful and beautiful.
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