This dome is near the check in station for the winter recreation program at the Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP). This is the dome's east side and was very easy to snowshoe up. The winter recreation program runs through March and is held every Saturday and Sunday. See the VCNP's calendar for exact dates and times. One more free public appreciation day will be held this winter on February 18, 2008, 9am to 4pm, President's Day.
Two Snowshoers Breaking TrailBut you don't have to break trail if you don't want to because the VCNP has a groomer which prepares a large swath of trails around the western Valle Grande. That's an arm of Redondo in the background.
Valle Grande Staging Area Check-In and ParkingI drove in on a 2 mile long plowed road from NM-4, in the Jemez Mountains. I managed in a Suburu. The road was OK in the morning but by afternoon, despite the never-ceasing plowing by the Preserve staff, drifts were forming over the road. I had to keep strictly to the tracks of the vehicles ahead and not get stuck in the deeper snow in the middle of the road or at the sides. Even NM-4 was drifting over. If you drive a passenger car, prepare for possibly getting stuck on the way out. The Preserve recommends four wheel drive or chains and I believe them because even an all wheel drive Suburu was marginal on the way out of the Preserve. In fact, a passenger car that was several vehicles ahead of me got stuck on the side of the road on the very last hill before NM-4. People pushed her out of the snow bank and she was good to go. The Valle Grande is a great, big snow bowl!!
The mountain with the tree-speckled meadow is Pajarito Mountain where Pajarito Mountain Ski Area is located in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
Orange Lichened Boulder Pile on Cerro la JaraWhen I walked into the Preserve during the August 2006 Drive and Discover Day (I breathed in a lot of car exhaust fumes!!), I wanted to walk up Cerro la Jara then but the public was only allowed a limited distance up the east side to see an archeological site. The Preserve has decided it's OK to go up Cerro la Jara in the winter because all the obsidian artifacts are protected under several feet of snow but it's off limits during the summer because the area would have to be NEPA-ed before it could be opened up to rabid, obsidian-heisting (NOT!!) hikers!! Yet, hunters in the fall are allowed more free rein within their hunting unit in the Preserve after attending a mandatory orientation where they are instructed not to pick up artifacts!!
Looking Down from Cerro la Jara toward the Valle Grande Staging Area
Pajarito Mountain (left) and Cerro Grande (right), on the Valles Caldera east rim, are in the far background.
Rabbit Ridge from Cerro la JaraThe thin, gray line is the Valles Caldera National Preserve's entrance road. Across NM-4, Rabbit Mountain is at the right (west) end of Rabbit Ridge and can be accessed from the VCNP's free Coyote Call Hike. The Sierra Club's Northern New Mexico Group mentions the hike up Rabbit Ridge, as part of the Coyote Call hike, in the 6th edition of their book, Day Hikes in the Santa Fe Area.
Cross Country Skiers Glide Beneath South Mountain (Left) and Redondo Peak (Right)The distances in the Valle Grande are vast. The day I was there, though, an extremely strong party of cross country skiers made the all day trip to the top of the almost 10,000' South Mountain!! I believe they were led by Sam Beard, who wrote Ski Touring in Northern New Mexico, which includes helpful information on cross country ski trails in the Jemez Mountains.
Rocky Southwestern Slope of Cerro la JaraRedondito is in the background. I was truly surprised at how steep little Cerro la Jara is. It's easily accessible from the east, near the Valle Grande Staging Area, but going down on the southwest side was steeper than I had imagined. From the pullouts along NM-4, set against the backdrop of massive Redondo and in the huge space of the Valle Grande, it looks like such a tame, rounded, little dome!!
Two Views of West Side of Cerro la Jara
Redondito Erupting
Not wishing to start any rumors, I hasten to affirm that it's only wafting clouds!!