Thenaturalmedic Adventures
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Thenaturalmedic Adventures
Journey Through Valle Caldera
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.
Hello, it is Monday, may 19th 2025. I'm at Valle Grande in the Valle Caldera National Preserve and it is snowing and the wind is blowing hard. Let's take a look. Normally this is a big open meadow by mountains and you can see it, but today you're not going to be able to see it. But it's a dormant volcano that's about 1.25 million years old with a huge magma chamber underneath. The depression is called a caldera Pretty wild, wow. And as quickly as you get here, the quickest it goes away. So if you look out here, this is huge. I was over there earlier and still trying to snow a little bit. The backcountry gate, which I'll be driving down here shortly. It's a $2 per person entrance deal to go in. But let's look at these cabins.
Speaker 1:We're in the cabin district, which is where the visitor center is. Which is this old cabin here? This cabin here is the Otero cabin. It is the oldest building here in the cabin district. It was the seasonal headquarters to oversee livestock on Baca number one and then grazing ratchets were sold to Frank Bont. Then this one over here which is, I think, a cooler looking cabin to me Just that rustic. What do you think a cabin should cabin to me Just that rustic. What do you think a cabin should look like Right here? 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.
Speaker 1:This is the cabin here called the Bond Cabin. It was the big house. It was headquarters for ranch operations until the 1960s. It was a seasonal home for the Bond family who had the grazing rights from 1918 to 1964. Pretty impressive. This one is the Ranch foreman's cabin. It was headquarters of the ranch foreman who was in charge of the ranching operations here until the early 2000s. Pretty amazing structure. So this cabin here is the Ruby's home. It was built in 1951. Jovita Erlinda Ruby Hulahan ni Ruiz was the caretaker for the Bond children 47 to 54. She raised the Bond children alongside her own in this ruby red cabin.
Speaker 1:Isn't that neat, looking Very rustic. So this is the old barn here. It was built in 1941. They would shear 50 to 100 sheep per day at the old barn because wool was in high demand during the war until the late 1940s whenever synthetics became more popular due to development during the war. This is a neat spot. Wow. I don't know if they realized how cool of a spot they had.
Speaker 1: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 Valle Toledo. I'll give you a view of it. It's probably just as great, if not even better, view. If we just flip it around, it'll be easier. Yeah, valle Toledo. Look at this. Wow, beautiful.
Speaker 1:It's gotta be a nightmare for excess management in the in this park. It's coming together as I was visiting with one of the park employees in the visitor center. Pretty amazing to see a park in its infancy, so to speak. The property's been in existence and used as an interesting place, or been known as an interesting place, for a long time, but it's, over the last few years, just really started to take off and with developing it to a real park, I walked down to San Antonio Creek. People can fish down here with proper meds and state licenses. What a beautiful view down here. It's super windy to know, so I won't be doing it. There's an old road you can. At one time we were able to drive across right here, but it's blocked off at the top up here. Okay. So behind me right here is the main park road. It's snowing again Just came from Valle Toledo, which which was this direction it's not very long and then valle san antonio, going to next, which is down here, which we're in. Valle san antonio, the eastern end, I guess, of it. I'm gonna go check that out. They do have portageons throughout the park, but not really any other facilities. Isn't this crazy, though, this weather, like a while ago it was just clear and then now all of a 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 end of Valle San Antonio.
Speaker 1:If you haven't figured this out, this whole preserve park is like the Johnny Cash song Ring of Fire. It's not on fire now, but at one time it was. The whole preserve is on top of a giant magma chamber underneath the ground. That's what made it what it is today. But if you look ahead here, I have two different roads. A lot of the trails here are roads, access roads or logging roads. This one, I believe I don't have a map, but I think it goes up and follows this ridge line of these mountains along the side here. And this one goes a different direction. I'm not really sure, but today's mostly a scouting mission. There is a San Antonio cabin back this way that I'm gonna check out. You can see that it's already cleared off and it's sunny again. It's crazy. I'm gonna hike down to San Antonio cabin. Then I have two short hikes to do on the way out of the park.
Speaker 1:Today this is more of a scouting mission more than anything else, and the other end of San Antonio Creek is right here also, on the other side of this road. Pretty cool, not sure what's going on here, but there is some workers and a fence and there's a Drilling unit on that Traco. I'm not sure what they're doing over there. Well, they're putting in a foundation. I'm not really sure what's going on. Maybe the rangers can tell me what's going on.
Speaker 1:I'm parked on the San Antonio Road. If you look this way, that's the San Antonio cabin. I'm going to take a little walk and take a closer look. They do have some roads that go down to it, but they look like they're all blocked off. We'll just walk down there and check it out. There was a door here when this was in use.
Speaker 1:I'm in an outhouse next to the San Antonio cabin. I'm looking at the San Antonio Creek. I'm looking at some mountains that way. Look at that Sierra Linda. Let's see what we got. That is Cerro San Luis, cerro, san Luis, cerro, san Luis. Over there and then over here to our right, we have Cerro Cinco. There's a trail to the top of that one. Dare I say this is one lovely view, one of the loveliest outhouse views you can probably see in New Mexico.
Speaker 1:I've got a pretty good suspicion that this cabin did not have indoor plumbing. There's an old shed out here. I just wanted to take a look at it real quick. Looks like it's pretty falling apart. I'm not sure what the plans are for this here property, but looks like it's in need of some repair. I'm sure the park service, when they get around to it, are going to do some things. It looked like there was either a place out here for plants, maybe some birds or something. There was some netting on the window. It's falling apart. Now the front porch. I'm sure I had lots of accoutrements laying around it. There's a picnic table over here now. It's like there's been some birds that have been roosting here probably turkey vultures would be my guess.
Speaker 1:Of course, back that direction is Valle Toledo. This is San Luis, and the one to our right is Cerro Seco, which has a trail that goes to and around the top. How you access that trail is a mystery to me. A lot of these trails and the property itself are just undeveloped at this time. What a lovely cabin this is. You're allowed to come up here and explore.
Speaker 1:That's a neat looking chair. I love that chair. It's an old stump carved into a little chair. Inside is just some random things. There's a table, some chairs, chairs. It's like an old stove, but I believe this cabin was moved here sometime in the past. I don't know more than that.
Speaker 1:Right over here you have an old barn and some corrals and pens. We'll take a look at that in a second. Definitely rustic living, for sure. I do see cow skulls on the side Looks like maybe an elk, an elk jaw. I don't realize how big elk are until you see their freaking jaw. It's crazy. Yeah, that's an elk jaw right there. It's probably about almost two foot long. Crazy Now, of course, during the time of this operation as cattle, sheep etc.
Speaker 1:They also logged this area pretty extensively, so pretty much all the old growth was taken out. This is the historic grove. I'll flip it around so you can get a big 360 view here. This is all old growth that's left Pretty good size. This is all that we have left. Coming back through the cabin district, I saw this guy. This is the saddle shed and this is where they would start their day Before sunrise, screaming their horses and getting ready to ride up 20 miles over this 10,000 acre property.
Speaker 1:I'm on my way out at the entrance station parking lot and I'm going to do Cerro La Jara Looks like La Jara on the map, but in Spanish it would be La Jara. I'm going to make a loop around this guy which is right in front of me here, so I can get some miles in. It's about a mile and a half around and then on the way out there's another hike I'm going to 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't believe you can get out. So I'm back to walking around Cerro La Hanna. It's a 1.5 mile trek around it, just going to keep moving. I didn't want to do too much mileage. Thanks to my foot is still hurting from my backpacking. My heel on that foot is just super sore. Anyway, we're going to make it.
Speaker 1:I've been coming around from this area. Here To my left is headquarters in South Mountain, which is correct. However, the road is way over there. I guess that's South Mountain right there we're looking at. I'm not too sure, but this is the Lahara Loop. I'm almost at the halfway point, so I'm gonna keep going.
Speaker 1:I'm thinking this mountain here is Rabbit Mountain, just outside the park boundary, by the entrance road where you turn in. But it could be that could be Rabbit Mountain over here. I'm not certain. It could be El Griegos. I believe I'm saying it right. Somebody that knows the park knows this area. Tell me, eric, if you're watching, let me know. Yeah, so I think straight ahead is Rabbit Mountain, which is in the Santa Fe National Forest, and then over there that pointy top mountain is Los Griegos. Both of those are in the Santa Fe National Forest and one of them is close to 10,000 feet and one of them is a little bit over 10,000 feet, I believe. Let me check the little map here, but neither one of those are on the park though. Yeah, rabbit Mountain straight ahead is just under 9938, just under 2,000 feet, and then to the right over here, los Gregos is 10,117 feet. Neither one of them look too technical but look like it. Both have fires on them in the past and not a lot of growth on the top.
Speaker 1:Cerro La Jara pretty cool guys and gals. Pretty neat spot. Not a very long trail, just walking around the edge of it until you get back to the entrance station, but it's a nice little walk. Let's go on to the next spot, next stop. Okay, with this one we've got to be quick Because we've got about 20 minutes, 25 minutes until they lock the gate and you need to be outside the gate or you could be locked in and get. Subject to citation.
Speaker 1:There's an old movie set cabin up here, pretty cool. It's not on the park brochure, it is on the NPS app, on the NPS app from the Play Store or the Apple Store. How neat. This whole scene looks like something out of an old western. You've got this big pile of rocks back here, got this old cabin Pretty neat and you can see a long way. I'll show you in a second behind me as I go out.
Speaker 1:Let's walk around the cabin first. They call this the missing cabin, so if you're looking for it on the NPS app, that's what you'll find it under Just say posted no trespassing, keep out. It is on the NPS app so you can come over here to it and look at it. We're gonna look in the door for the window for a second. A little back shed there looks like there was something that happened. Somebody got on here and Busted it up. Cool little mosses down here. Oh, look at this big ol' porch. The owners of the ranch will be sitting on the front porch here and the bad guys will ride up on this road by these big rocks and be like we're going to buy your ranch and then we're going to evict you and we're going to turn you into our servants.
Speaker 1:Something like that does. That sounds like the plot of a lot of westerns. I think it does. Pretty neat, though. Look at these cool rocks over here too. You can see beautiful views of the mountains around here in the valias caldera, and there's good old rabbit mountain right there. As far as I know, it's rabbit mountain. Until somebody corrects me, you've got an outhouse here. I don't think it's quite as scenic out here as the one over there by the san antonio cabin, but still pretty neat, and this looks like a pretty new reconstruction.
Speaker 1:Let's look in the back parts Parts of these things. There's a septic tank Right there, stairway, all kinds of stuff. Wow, how cool is that? Pretty dang cool. There's Federal La Jara that I hiked around earlier, not too far. Good one to catch on your way out. Let's go back to the vehicle and then we'll do a summary right outside the park.
Speaker 1:So this is Valles Caldera from the Valles Grande, which is the big meadow in front of the park. Look at the lovely views. Unfortunately I have to leave now so I don't get sighted. You probably remember me from this morning being out here and it was like Unfortunately I have to leave now so I don't get sighted. You probably remember me from this morning being out here and it was like you couldn't even see the Valles Grande. That's Cerro La Jara, right there, the old movie set to the left. The entrance station is down there. Probably can't quite see it, but it is there. South Mountain, all of that. I'm going to zoom out so we get a better effect. We have this ring of hills around this valley that are showing evidence of this volcanic eruption. That happened millions of years ago. It was the climax of volcanic activity in the Jemez Mountains.
Speaker 1:Cerro Grande is one of the tallest mountains around, so Cerro Grande is right on the border. You can see it on the map here. Why it's called that? On the map here it says Rincon de los Soldados, los Soldados. So there you go. In English, get another view of this thing. Here we have lots of big. The highest peak is redondo peak, which I believe is 7 254 feet. Um, you can see all of the mountains from right here. Yeah, redondo is right there. Yeah, redondo is right there. It's this taller peak right there Redondito North Caldera Rim, cerros del Abricro, cerros de Medio, east Caldera Rim. Alright, this probably is going to be a long video, but there's a lot to cover. It's going to be as long as it needs to be. Thanks for sticking with me until the end.
Speaker 1:Make sure to get here earlier than I did. I got here about 1130, and I just barely had enough time to do a couple of hikes, a couple of 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 I'm not really sure why, but anyway, they physically chain up the gate and they make it where you can't get in, and if you're locked in, you get a citation in addition to having to get your vehicle. Fun time Just abide that five o'clock rule, you should be fine. And if you want to do that backcountry road trip like I did today, it's $2 per person at Advance on recreationgov. I'll put a link to that below so you can see that. Definitely worth it.
Speaker 1:Didn't get to see everything I wanted 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 foot feels better, I'll do some more hiking, but hopefully you got a good overview of the preserve here. Being a preserve, of course, it is a little bit different than a normal national park. They do allow some consumptive uses, such as fishing and hunting in the park with a permit, and it's restricted to state regulations. They have special regulations for this particular property. Overall, though, it's a neat place to check out. I hope to come back soon and see it some more. What about you? Have you been here before? Do you have any comments or questions about anything? If you do, leave them below. Until then, give me a good old thumbs up if you liked this video and enjoyed it, especially if you stuck through the end here. Definitely do that. Think about subscribing to the channel if you want more great content. The next time I'll see you on the trail, okay, bye.
