August 8, 2025 • 23 mins
Note: Audio Only, Please see YouTube for the Video Version
We explore Valle Caldera National Preserve in New Mexico, a 1.25-million-year-old dormant volcano with a massive magma chamber beneath its surface. The preserve features historic buildings, dramatic weather changes, and breathtaking views of mountain landscapes surrounding the massive caldera depression.
• Historic cabin district includes structures dating back decades, each telling stories of the area's ranching history
• Weather changes dramatically throughout the day, shifting from clear skies to snowstorms within minutes
• The preserve sits atop a massive magma chamber, creating the distinctive ring of mountains around open meadows
• San Antonio Cabin area offers stunning views and what might be "the loveliest outhouse views in New Mexico"
• Hiking opportunities include the 1.5-mile Cerro La Jara loop and a visit to the "Missing Cabin" movie set
• The park is still developing its infrastructure as a relatively new addition to the National Park System
• Visitors should note that the entrance gate locks at 5:00 PM sharp with physical chains
Make sure to arrive earlier than I did to have enough time to explore. The gate does lock at 5:00 PM, and if you're locked in, you'll get a citation. For backcountry road access, it's $2 per person in advance on Recreation.gov.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, it is Monday, may 19th 2025.
I'm at Valle Grande in theValle Caldera National Preserve
and it is snowing and the windis blowing hard.
Let's take a look.
Normally this is a big openmeadow by mountains and you can
(00:25):
see it, but today you're notgoing to be able to see it.
But it's a dormant volcanothat's about 1.25 million years
old with a huge magma chamberunderneath.
The depression is called acaldera Pretty wild, wow.
And as quickly as you get here,the quickest it goes away.
(00:46):
So if you look out here, thisis huge.
I was over there earlier andstill trying to snow a little
bit.
The backcountry gate, whichI'll be driving down here
shortly.
It's a $2 per person entrancedeal to go in.
But let's look at these cabins.
(01:08):
We're in the cabin district,which is where the visitor
center is.
Which is this old cabin here?
This cabin here is the Oterocabin.
It is the oldest building herein the cabin district.
It was the seasonalheadquarters to oversee
(01:28):
livestock on Baca number one andthen grazing ratchets were sold
to Frank Bont.
Then this one over here whichis, I think, a cooler looking
cabin to me Just that rustic.
What do you think a cabinshould cabin to me Just that
rustic.
What do you think a cabinshould look like Right here?
(01:49):
Which is the commissary?
Although it stands right here,it was built three decades later
and was a supply for shepherds,ranch workers at Baca, location
number one.
This is the cabin here calledthe Bond Cabin.
(02:09):
It was the big house.
It was headquarters for ranchoperations until the 1960s.
It was a seasonal home for theBond family who had the grazing
rights from 1918 to 1964.
Pretty impressive.
This one is the Ranch foreman'scabin.
It was headquarters of theranch foreman who was in charge
(02:31):
of the ranching operations hereuntil the early 2000s.
Pretty amazing structure.
So this cabin here is theRuby's home.
It was built in 1951.
Jovita Erlinda Ruby Hulahan niRuiz was the caretaker for the
(02:55):
Bond children 47 to 54.
She raised the Bond childrenalongside her own in this ruby
red cabin.
Isn't that neat, looking Veryrustic.
So this is the old barn here.
It was built in 1941.
They would shear 50 to 100sheep per day at the old barn
(03:18):
because wool was in high demandduring the war until the late
1940s whenever synthetics becamemore popular due to development
during the war.
This is a neat spot.
Wow.
I don't know if they realizedhow cool of a spot they had.
(03:41):
Hey, if you're liking this video, make sure to give it a thumbs
up.
Get out to more people.
Thanks, alright, I'm in ValleToledo.
I'll give you a view of it.
It's probably just as great, ifnot even better, view.
If we just flip it around,it'll be easier.
(04:02):
Yeah, valle Toledo.
Look at this.
Wow, beautiful.
It's gotta be a nightmare forexcess management in the in this
(04:29):
park.
It's coming together as I wasvisiting with one of the park
employees in the visitor center.
Pretty amazing to see a park inits infancy, so to speak.
The property's been inexistence and used as an
(04:50):
interesting place, or been knownas an interesting place, for a
long time, but it's, over thelast few years, just really
started to take off and withdeveloping it to a real park, I
walked down to San Antonio Creek.
People can fish down here withproper meds and state licenses.
(05:11):
What a beautiful view down here.
It's super windy to know, so Iwon't be doing it.
There's an old road you can.
At one time we were able todrive across right here, but
it's blocked off at the top uphere.
Okay.
So behind me right here is themain park road.
It's snowing again Just camefrom Valle Toledo, which which
(05:37):
was this direction it's not verylong and then valle san antonio
, going to next, which is downhere, which we're in.
Valle san antonio, the easternend, I guess, of it.
I'm gonna go check that out.
They do have portageonsthroughout the park, but not
really any other facilities.
Isn't this crazy, though, thisweather, like a while ago it was
(06:01):
just clear and then now all ofa sudden it's just blown in and
there's a ton mixture of snow,sleet and hail coming through
here.
Okay, so we're on the far endof Valle San Antonio.
If you haven't figured this out,this whole preserve park is
(06:24):
like the Johnny Cash song Ringof Fire.
It's not on fire now, but atone time it was.
The whole preserve is on top ofa giant magma chamber
underneath the ground.
That's what made it what it istoday.
But if you look ahead here, Ihave two different roads.
A lot of the trails here areroads, access roads or logging
(06:48):
roads.
This one, I believe I don'thave a map, but I think it goes
up and follows this ridge lineof these mountains along the
side here.
And this one goes a differentdirection.
I'm not really sure, buttoday's mostly a scouting
mission.
There is a San Antonio cabinback this way that I'm gonna
(07:11):
check out.
You can see that it's alreadycleared off and it's sunny again
.
It's crazy.
I'm gonna hike down to SanAntonio cabin.
Then I have two short hikes todo on the way out of the park.
Today this is more of a scoutingmission more than anything else
, and the other end of SanAntonio Creek is right here also
, on the other side of this road.
(07:31):
Pretty cool, not sure what'sgoing on here, but there is some
workers and a fence and there'sa Drilling unit on that Traco.
I'm not sure what they're doingover there.
Well, they're putting in afoundation.
I'm not really sure what'sgoing on.
Maybe the rangers can tell mewhat's going on.
I'm parked on the San AntonioRoad.
(07:52):
If you look this way, that'sthe San Antonio cabin.
I'm going to take a little walkand take a closer look.
They do have some roads that godown to it, but they look like
they're all blocked off.
We'll just walk down there andcheck it out.
There was a door here when thiswas in use.
(08:14):
I'm in an outhouse next to theSan Antonio cabin.
I'm looking at the San AntonioCreek.
I'm looking at some mountainsthat way.
Look at that Sierra Linda.
Let's see what we got.
That is Cerro San Luis, cerro,san Luis, cerro, san Luis.
(08:43):
Over there and then over hereto our right, we have Cerro
Cinco.
There's a trail to the top ofthat one.
Dare I say this is one lovelyview, one of the loveliest
outhouse views you can probablysee in New Mexico.
I've got a pretty good suspicionthat this cabin did not have
(09:03):
indoor plumbing.
There's an old shed out here.
I just wanted to take a look atit real quick.
Looks like it's pretty fallingapart.
I'm not sure what the plans arefor this here property, but
looks like it's in need of somerepair.
I'm sure the park service, whenthey get around to it, are
(09:26):
going to do some things.
It looked like there was eithera place out here for plants,
maybe some birds or something.
There was some netting on thewindow.
It's falling apart.
Now the front porch.
I'm sure I had lots ofaccoutrements laying around it.
(09:46):
There's a picnic table overhere now.
It's like there's been somebirds that have been roosting
here probably turkey vultureswould be my guess.
Of course, back that directionis Valle Toledo.
This is San Luis, and the oneto our right is Cerro Seco,
(10:08):
which has a trail that goes toand around the top.
How you access that trail is amystery to me.
A lot of these trails and theproperty itself are just
undeveloped at this time.
What a lovely cabin this is.
You're allowed to come up hereand explore.
That's a neat looking chair.
(10:28):
I love that chair.
It's an old stump carved into alittle chair.
Inside is just some randomthings.
There's a table, some chairs,chairs.
It's like an old stove, but Ibelieve this cabin was moved
here sometime in the past.
I don't know more than that.
Right over here you have an oldbarn and some corrals and pens.
(10:50):
We'll take a look at that in asecond.
Definitely rustic living, forsure.
I do see cow skulls on the sideLooks like maybe an elk, an elk
jaw.
I don't realize how big elk areuntil you see their freaking
jaw.
It's crazy.
Yeah, that's an elk jaw rightthere.
(11:12):
It's probably about almost twofoot long.
Crazy Now, of course, duringthe time of this operation as
cattle, sheep etc.
They also logged this areapretty extensively, so pretty
much all the old growth wastaken out.
(11:32):
This is the historic grove.
I'll flip it around so you canget a big 360 view here.
This is all old growth that'sleft Pretty good size.
This is all that we have left.
Coming back through the cabindistrict, I saw this guy.
This is the saddle shed andthis is where they would start
their day Before sunrise,screaming their horses and
(11:56):
getting ready to ride up 20miles over this 10,000 acre
property.
I'm on my way out at theentrance station parking lot and
I'm going to do Cerro La JaraLooks like La Jara on the map,
but in Spanish it would be LaJara.
I'm going to make a loop aroundthis guy which is right in
(12:18):
front of me here, so I can getsome miles in.
It's about a mile and a halfaround and then on the way out
there's another hike I'm goingto do to an old movie set and
that'll pretty much be it,because they let you physically
lock the gate at 5, and I don'tbelieve you can get out.
So I'm back to walking aroundCerro La Hanna.
(12:39):
It's a 1.5 mile trek around it,just going to keep moving.
I didn't want to do too muchmileage.
Thanks to my foot is stillhurting from my backpacking.
My heel on that foot is justsuper sore.
Anyway, we're going to make it.
I've been coming around fromthis area.
(13:02):
Here To my left is headquartersin South Mountain, which is
correct.
However, the road is way overthere.
I guess that's South Mountainright there we're looking at.
I'm not too sure, but this isthe Lahara Loop.
I'm almost at the halfway point, so I'm gonna keep going.
(13:23):
I'm thinking this mountain hereis Rabbit Mountain, just outside
the park boundary, by theentrance road where you turn in.
But it could be that could beRabbit Mountain over here.
I'm not certain.
It could be El Griegos.
(13:44):
I believe I'm saying it right.
Somebody that knows the parkknows this area.
Tell me, eric, if you'rewatching, let me know.
Yeah, so I think straight aheadis Rabbit Mountain, which is in
the Santa Fe National Forest,and then over there that pointy
(14:06):
top mountain is Los Griegos.
Both of those are in the SantaFe National Forest and one of
them is close to 10,000 feet andone of them is a little bit
over 10,000 feet, I believe.
Let me check the little maphere, but neither one of those
(14:31):
are on the park though.
Yeah, rabbit Mountain straightahead is just under 9938, just
(14:53):
under 2,000 feet, and then tothe right over here, los Gregos
is 10,117 feet.
Neither one of them look tootechnical but look like it.
Both have fires on them in thepast and not a lot of growth on
(15:15):
the top.
Cerro La Jara pretty cool guysand gals.
Pretty neat spot.
Not a very long trail, justwalking around the edge of it
until you get back to theentrance station, but it's a
nice little walk.
(15:35):
Let's go on to the next spot,next stop.
Okay, with this one we've gotto be quick Because we've got
about 20 minutes, 25 minutesuntil they lock the gate and you
need to be outside the gate oryou could be locked in and get.
Subject to citation.
There's an old movie set cabinup here, pretty cool.
(16:02):
It's not on the park brochure,it is on the NPS app, on the NPS
app from the Play Store or theApple Store.
How neat.
This whole scene looks likesomething out of an old western.
(16:24):
You've got this big pile ofrocks back here, got this old
cabin Pretty neat and you cansee a long way.
I'll show you in a secondbehind me as I go out.
Let's walk around the cabinfirst.
They call this the missingcabin, so if you're looking for
(16:46):
it on the NPS app, that's whatyou'll find it under Just say
posted no trespassing, keep out.
It is on the NPS app so you cancome over here to it and look
at it.
We're gonna look in the doorfor the window for a second.
(17:06):
A little back shed there lookslike there was something that
happened.
Somebody got on here and Bustedit up.
Cool little mosses down here.
Oh, look at this big ol' porch.
(17:30):
The owners of the ranch will besitting on the front porch here
and the bad guys will ride upon this road by these big rocks
and be like we're going to buyyour ranch and then we're going
(17:54):
to evict you and we're going toturn you into our servants.
Something like that does.
That sounds like the plot of alot of westerns.
I think it does.
Pretty neat, though.
Look at these cool rocks overhere too.
You can see beautiful views ofthe mountains around here in the
valias caldera, and there'sgood old rabbit mountain right
(18:18):
there.
As far as I know, it's rabbitmountain.
Until somebody corrects me,you've got an outhouse here.
I don't think it's quite asscenic out here as the one over
there by the san antonio cabin,but still pretty neat, and this
looks like a pretty newreconstruction.
Let's look in the back partsParts of these things.
There's a septic tank Rightthere, stairway, all kinds of
(18:46):
stuff.
Wow, how cool is that?
Pretty dang cool.
There's Federal La Jara that Ihiked around earlier, not too
far.
Good one to catch on your wayout.
Let's go back to the vehicleand then we'll do a summary
right outside the park.
So this is Valles Caldera fromthe Valles Grande, which is the
(19:09):
big meadow in front of the park.
Look at the lovely views.
Unfortunately I have to leavenow so I don't get sighted.
You probably remember me fromthis morning being out here and
it was like Unfortunately I haveto leave now so I don't get
sighted.
You probably remember me fromthis morning being out here and
it was like you couldn't evensee the Valles Grande.
That's Cerro La Jara, rightthere, the old movie set to the
(19:32):
left.
The entrance station is downthere.
Probably can't quite see it,but it is there.
South Mountain, all of that.
I'm going to zoom out so we geta better effect.
We have this ring of hillsaround this valley that are
(19:53):
showing evidence of thisvolcanic eruption.
That happened millions of yearsago.
It was the climax of volcanicactivity in the Jemez Mountains.
Cerro Grande is one of thetallest mountains around, so
(20:15):
Cerro Grande is right on theborder.
You can see it on the map here.
Why it's called that?
On the map here it says Rinconde los Soldados, los Soldados.
(20:52):
So there you go.
In English, get another view ofthis thing.
Here we have lots of big.
The highest peak is redondopeak, which I believe is 7 254
feet.
Um, you can see all of themountains from right here.
(21:14):
Yeah, redondo is right there.
Yeah, redondo is right there.
It's this taller peak rightthere Redondito North Caldera
Rim, cerros del Abricro, cerrosde Medio, east Caldera Rim.
Alright, this probably is goingto be a long video, but there's
(21:36):
a lot to cover.
It's going to be as long as itneeds to be.
Thanks for sticking with meuntil the end.
Make sure to get here earlierthan I did.
I got here about 1130, and Ijust barely had enough time to
do a couple of hikes, a coupleof very short hikes, before they
lock the gate at 5.
The gate does lock at 5.
They do chain it shut.
It's not like an automatic gate, like a lot of places, which
(22:03):
I'm not really sure why, butanyway, they physically chain up
the gate and they make it whereyou can't get in, and if you're
locked in, you get a citationin addition to having to get
your vehicle.
Fun time Just abide that fiveo'clock rule, you should be fine
.
And if you want to do thatbackcountry road trip like I did
today, it's $2 per person atAdvance on recreationgov.
I'll put a link to that belowso you can see that.
Definitely worth it.
(22:27):
Didn't get to see everything Iwanted to see.
It was super windy today.
The weather wasn't cooperative,but this was more like a
scouting mission today.
In the future, when my footfeels better, I'll do some more
hiking, but hopefully you got agood overview of the preserve
here.
Being a preserve, of course, itis a little bit different than
(22:48):
a normal national park.
They do allow some consumptiveuses, such as fishing and
hunting in the park with apermit, and it's restricted to
state regulations.
They have special regulationsfor this particular property.
Overall, though, it's a neatplace to check out.
I hope to come back soon andsee it some more.
What about you?
Have you been here before?
Do you have any comments orquestions about anything?
(23:10):
If you do, leave them below.
Until then, give me a good oldthumbs up if you liked this
video and enjoyed it, especiallyif you stuck through the end
here.
Definitely do that.
Think about subscribing to thechannel if you want more great
content.
The next time I'll see you onthe trail, okay, bye.
Hello, it is Monday, may 19th 2025.
I'm at Valle Grande in theValle Caldera National Preserve
and it is snowing and the windis blowing hard.
Let's take a look.
Normally this is a big openmeadow by mountains and you can
(00:25):
see it, but today you're notgoing to be able to see it.
But it's a dormant volcanothat's about 1.25 million years
old with a huge magma chamberunderneath.
The depression is called acaldera Pretty wild, wow.
And as quickly as you get here,the quickest it goes away.
(00:46):
So if you look out here, thisis huge.
I was over there earlier andstill trying to snow a little
bit.
The backcountry gate, whichI'll be driving down here
shortly.
It's a $2 per person entrancedeal to go in.
But let's look at these cabins.
(01:08):
We're in the cabin district,which is where the visitor
center is.
Which is this old cabin here?
This cabin here is the Oterocabin.
It is the oldest building herein the cabin district.
It was the seasonalheadquarters to oversee
(01:28):
livestock on Baca number one andthen grazing ratchets were sold
to Frank Bont.
Then this one over here whichis, I think, a cooler looking
cabin to me Just that rustic.
What do you think a cabinshould cabin to me Just that
rustic.
What do you think a cabinshould look like Right here?
(01:49):
Which is the commissary?
Although it stands right here,it was built three decades later
and was a supply for shepherds,ranch workers at Baca, location
number one.
This is the cabin here calledthe Bond Cabin.
(02:09):
It was the big house.
It was headquarters for ranchoperations until the 1960s.
It was a seasonal home for theBond family who had the grazing
rights from 1918 to 1964.
Pretty impressive.
This one is the Ranch foreman'scabin.
It was headquarters of theranch foreman who was in charge
(02:31):
of the ranching operations hereuntil the early 2000s.
Pretty amazing structure.
So this cabin here is theRuby's home.
It was built in 1951.
Jovita Erlinda Ruby Hulahan niRuiz was the caretaker for the
(02:55):
Bond children 47 to 54.
She raised the Bond childrenalongside her own in this ruby
red cabin.
Isn't that neat, looking Veryrustic.
So this is the old barn here.
It was built in 1941.
They would shear 50 to 100sheep per day at the old barn
(03:18):
because wool was in high demandduring the war until the late
1940s whenever synthetics becamemore popular due to development
during the war.
This is a neat spot.
Wow.
I don't know if they realizedhow cool of a spot they had.
(03:41):
Hey, if you're liking this video, make sure to give it a thumbs
up.
Get out to more people.
Thanks, alright, I'm in ValleToledo.
I'll give you a view of it.
It's probably just as great, ifnot even better, view.
If we just flip it around,it'll be easier.
(04:02):
Yeah, valle Toledo.
Look at this.
Wow, beautiful.
It's gotta be a nightmare forexcess management in the in this
(04:29):
park.
It's coming together as I wasvisiting with one of the park
employees in the visitor center.
Pretty amazing to see a park inits infancy, so to speak.
The property's been inexistence and used as an
(04:50):
interesting place, or been knownas an interesting place, for a
long time, but it's, over thelast few years, just really
started to take off and withdeveloping it to a real park, I
walked down to San Antonio Creek.
People can fish down here withproper meds and state licenses.
(05:11):
What a beautiful view down here.
It's super windy to know, so Iwon't be doing it.
There's an old road you can.
At one time we were able todrive across right here, but
it's blocked off at the top uphere.
Okay.
So behind me right here is themain park road.
It's snowing again Just camefrom Valle Toledo, which which
(05:37):
was this direction it's not verylong and then valle san antonio
, going to next, which is downhere, which we're in.
Valle san antonio, the easternend, I guess, of it.
I'm gonna go check that out.
They do have portageonsthroughout the park, but not
really any other facilities.
Isn't this crazy, though, thisweather, like a while ago it was
(06:01):
just clear and then now all ofa sudden it's just blown in and
there's a ton mixture of snow,sleet and hail coming through
here.
Okay, so we're on the far endof Valle San Antonio.
If you haven't figured this out,this whole preserve park is
(06:24):
like the Johnny Cash song Ringof Fire.
It's not on fire now, but atone time it was.
The whole preserve is on top ofa giant magma chamber
underneath the ground.
That's what made it what it istoday.
But if you look ahead here, Ihave two different roads.
A lot of the trails here areroads, access roads or logging
(06:48):
roads.
This one, I believe I don'thave a map, but I think it goes
up and follows this ridge lineof these mountains along the
side here.
And this one goes a differentdirection.
I'm not really sure, buttoday's mostly a scouting
mission.
There is a San Antonio cabinback this way that I'm gonna
(07:11):
check out.
You can see that it's alreadycleared off and it's sunny again
.
It's crazy.
I'm gonna hike down to SanAntonio cabin.
Then I have two short hikes todo on the way out of the park.
Today this is more of a scoutingmission more than anything else
, and the other end of SanAntonio Creek is right here also
, on the other side of this road.
(07:31):
Pretty cool, not sure what'sgoing on here, but there is some
workers and a fence and there'sa Drilling unit on that Traco.
I'm not sure what they're doingover there.
Well, they're putting in afoundation.
I'm not really sure what'sgoing on.
Maybe the rangers can tell mewhat's going on.
I'm parked on the San AntonioRoad.
(07:52):
If you look this way, that'sthe San Antonio cabin.
I'm going to take a little walkand take a closer look.
They do have some roads that godown to it, but they look like
they're all blocked off.
We'll just walk down there andcheck it out.
There was a door here when thiswas in use.
(08:14):
I'm in an outhouse next to theSan Antonio cabin.
I'm looking at the San AntonioCreek.
I'm looking at some mountainsthat way.
Look at that Sierra Linda.
Let's see what we got.
That is Cerro San Luis, cerro,san Luis, cerro, san Luis.
(08:43):
Over there and then over hereto our right, we have Cerro
Cinco.
There's a trail to the top ofthat one.
Dare I say this is one lovelyview, one of the loveliest
outhouse views you can probablysee in New Mexico.
I've got a pretty good suspicionthat this cabin did not have
(09:03):
indoor plumbing.
There's an old shed out here.
I just wanted to take a look atit real quick.
Looks like it's pretty fallingapart.
I'm not sure what the plans arefor this here property, but
looks like it's in need of somerepair.
I'm sure the park service, whenthey get around to it, are
(09:26):
going to do some things.
It looked like there was eithera place out here for plants,
maybe some birds or something.
There was some netting on thewindow.
It's falling apart.
Now the front porch.
I'm sure I had lots ofaccoutrements laying around it.
(09:46):
There's a picnic table overhere now.
It's like there's been somebirds that have been roosting
here probably turkey vultureswould be my guess.
Of course, back that directionis Valle Toledo.
This is San Luis, and the oneto our right is Cerro Seco,
(10:08):
which has a trail that goes toand around the top.
How you access that trail is amystery to me.
A lot of these trails and theproperty itself are just
undeveloped at this time.
What a lovely cabin this is.
You're allowed to come up hereand explore.
That's a neat looking chair.
(10:28):
I love that chair.
It's an old stump carved into alittle chair.
Inside is just some randomthings.
There's a table, some chairs,chairs.
It's like an old stove, but Ibelieve this cabin was moved
here sometime in the past.
I don't know more than that.
Right over here you have an oldbarn and some corrals and pens.
(10:50):
We'll take a look at that in asecond.
Definitely rustic living, forsure.
I do see cow skulls on the sideLooks like maybe an elk, an elk
jaw.
I don't realize how big elk areuntil you see their freaking
jaw.
It's crazy.
Yeah, that's an elk jaw rightthere.
(11:12):
It's probably about almost twofoot long.
Crazy Now, of course, duringthe time of this operation as
cattle, sheep etc.
They also logged this areapretty extensively, so pretty
much all the old growth wastaken out.
(11:32):
This is the historic grove.
I'll flip it around so you canget a big 360 view here.
This is all old growth that'sleft Pretty good size.
This is all that we have left.
Coming back through the cabindistrict, I saw this guy.
This is the saddle shed andthis is where they would start
their day Before sunrise,screaming their horses and
(11:56):
getting ready to ride up 20miles over this 10,000 acre
property.
I'm on my way out at theentrance station parking lot and
I'm going to do Cerro La JaraLooks like La Jara on the map,
but in Spanish it would be LaJara.
I'm going to make a loop aroundthis guy which is right in
(12:18):
front of me here, so I can getsome miles in.
It's about a mile and a halfaround and then on the way out
there's another hike I'm goingto do to an old movie set and
that'll pretty much be it,because they let you physically
lock the gate at 5, and I don'tbelieve you can get out.
So I'm back to walking aroundCerro La Hanna.
(12:39):
It's a 1.5 mile trek around it,just going to keep moving.
I didn't want to do too muchmileage.
Thanks to my foot is stillhurting from my backpacking.
My heel on that foot is justsuper sore.
Anyway, we're going to make it.
I've been coming around fromthis area.
(13:02):
Here To my left is headquartersin South Mountain, which is
correct.
However, the road is way overthere.
I guess that's South Mountainright there we're looking at.
I'm not too sure, but this isthe Lahara Loop.
I'm almost at the halfway point, so I'm gonna keep going.
(13:23):
I'm thinking this mountain hereis Rabbit Mountain, just outside
the park boundary, by theentrance road where you turn in.
But it could be that could beRabbit Mountain over here.
I'm not certain.
It could be El Griegos.
(13:44):
I believe I'm saying it right.
Somebody that knows the parkknows this area.
Tell me, eric, if you'rewatching, let me know.
Yeah, so I think straight aheadis Rabbit Mountain, which is in
the Santa Fe National Forest,and then over there that pointy
(14:06):
top mountain is Los Griegos.
Both of those are in the SantaFe National Forest and one of
them is close to 10,000 feet andone of them is a little bit
over 10,000 feet, I believe.
Let me check the little maphere, but neither one of those
(14:31):
are on the park though.
Yeah, rabbit Mountain straightahead is just under 9938, just
(14:53):
under 2,000 feet, and then tothe right over here, los Gregos
is 10,117 feet.
Neither one of them look tootechnical but look like it.
Both have fires on them in thepast and not a lot of growth on
(15:15):
the top.
Cerro La Jara pretty cool guysand gals.
Pretty neat spot.
Not a very long trail, justwalking around the edge of it
until you get back to theentrance station, but it's a
nice little walk.
(15:35):
Let's go on to the next spot,next stop.
Okay, with this one we've gotto be quick Because we've got
about 20 minutes, 25 minutesuntil they lock the gate and you
need to be outside the gate oryou could be locked in and get.
Subject to citation.
There's an old movie set cabinup here, pretty cool.
(16:02):
It's not on the park brochure,it is on the NPS app, on the NPS
app from the Play Store or theApple Store.
How neat.
This whole scene looks likesomething out of an old western.
(16:24):
You've got this big pile ofrocks back here, got this old
cabin Pretty neat and you cansee a long way.
I'll show you in a secondbehind me as I go out.
Let's walk around the cabinfirst.
They call this the missingcabin, so if you're looking for
(16:46):
it on the NPS app, that's whatyou'll find it under Just say
posted no trespassing, keep out.
It is on the NPS app so you cancome over here to it and look
at it.
We're gonna look in the doorfor the window for a second.
(17:06):
A little back shed there lookslike there was something that
happened.
Somebody got on here and Bustedit up.
Cool little mosses down here.
Oh, look at this big ol' porch.
(17:30):
The owners of the ranch will besitting on the front porch here
and the bad guys will ride upon this road by these big rocks
and be like we're going to buyyour ranch and then we're going
(17:54):
to evict you and we're going toturn you into our servants.
Something like that does.
That sounds like the plot of alot of westerns.
I think it does.
Pretty neat, though.
Look at these cool rocks overhere too.
You can see beautiful views ofthe mountains around here in the
valias caldera, and there'sgood old rabbit mountain right
(18:18):
there.
As far as I know, it's rabbitmountain.
Until somebody corrects me,you've got an outhouse here.
I don't think it's quite asscenic out here as the one over
there by the san antonio cabin,but still pretty neat, and this
looks like a pretty newreconstruction.
Let's look in the back partsParts of these things.
There's a septic tank Rightthere, stairway, all kinds of
(18:46):
stuff.
Wow, how cool is that?
Pretty dang cool.
There's Federal La Jara that Ihiked around earlier, not too
far.
Good one to catch on your wayout.
Let's go back to the vehicleand then we'll do a summary
right outside the park.
So this is Valles Caldera fromthe Valles Grande, which is the
(19:09):
big meadow in front of the park.
Look at the lovely views.
Unfortunately I have to leavenow so I don't get sighted.
You probably remember me fromthis morning being out here and
it was like Unfortunately I haveto leave now so I don't get
sighted.
You probably remember me fromthis morning being out here and
it was like you couldn't evensee the Valles Grande.
That's Cerro La Jara, rightthere, the old movie set to the
(19:32):
left.
The entrance station is downthere.
Probably can't quite see it,but it is there.
South Mountain, all of that.
I'm going to zoom out so we geta better effect.
We have this ring of hillsaround this valley that are
(19:53):
showing evidence of thisvolcanic eruption.
That happened millions of yearsago.
It was the climax of volcanicactivity in the Jemez Mountains.
Cerro Grande is one of thetallest mountains around, so
(20:15):
Cerro Grande is right on theborder.
You can see it on the map here.
Why it's called that?
On the map here it says Rinconde los Soldados, los Soldados.
(20:52):
So there you go.
In English, get another view ofthis thing.
Here we have lots of big.
The highest peak is redondopeak, which I believe is 7 254
feet.
Um, you can see all of themountains from right here.
(21:14):
Yeah, redondo is right there.
Yeah, redondo is right there.
It's this taller peak rightthere Redondito North Caldera
Rim, cerros del Abricro, cerrosde Medio, east Caldera Rim.
Alright, this probably is goingto be a long video, but there's
(21:36):
a lot to cover.
It's going to be as long as itneeds to be.
Thanks for sticking with meuntil the end.
Make sure to get here earlierthan I did.
I got here about 1130, and Ijust barely had enough time to
do a couple of hikes, a coupleof very short hikes, before they
lock the gate at 5.
The gate does lock at 5.
They do chain it shut.
It's not like an automatic gate, like a lot of places, which
(22:03):
I'm not really sure why, butanyway, they physically chain up
the gate and they make it whereyou can't get in, and if you're
locked in, you get a citationin addition to having to get
your vehicle.
Fun time Just abide that fiveo'clock rule, you should be fine
.
And if you want to do thatbackcountry road trip like I did
today, it's $2 per person atAdvance on recreationgov.
I'll put a link to that belowso you can see that.
Definitely worth it.
(22:27):
Didn't get to see everything Iwanted to see.
It was super windy today.
The weather wasn't cooperative,but this was more like a
scouting mission today.
In the future, when my footfeels better, I'll do some more
hiking, but hopefully you got agood overview of the preserve
here.
Being a preserve, of course, itis a little bit different than
(22:48):
a normal national park.
They do allow some consumptiveuses, such as fishing and
hunting in the park with apermit, and it's restricted to
state regulations.
They have special regulationsfor this particular property.
Overall, though, it's a neatplace to check out.
I hope to come back soon andsee it some more.
What about you?
Have you been here before?
Do you have any comments orquestions about anything?
(23:10):
If you do, leave them below.
Until then, give me a good oldthumbs up if you liked this
video and enjoyed it, especiallyif you stuck through the end
here.
Definitely do that.
Think about subscribing to thechannel if you want more great
content.
The next time I'll see you onthe trail, okay, bye.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.