The drive through the caldera was wonderful. The dirt road was in great shape. We were afforded excellent views all along the drive, some across the expanse of the caldera, some taking in the domes and others of the rim, but all beautiful. Not very crowded in the preserve. None of the trailhead parking areas had more than a car or two. We thought the road might degrade the further away from the visitor center we traveled but that was not the case. It was pretty much smooth sailing the entire trip, just a few short stretches of washboard and the typical potholes that are in any dirt road. The only place that was even close to out of the ordinary was just before we reached the trailhead where we had to ford a small creek; very minor obstacle. We were at the trailhead about 10:30. Just under and hour from the visitor center to this point near the northern boundary of the park. There were two other vehicles at the trailhead for park road 12 where we were starting our hike. One was parked near the road; probably folks fishing in the stream a few hundred yards out in the meadow. The other was parked near the trailhead sign so these folks are probably out on the trail somewhere. OK, we won't have the trail all to ourselves, but pretty darn close. We had a quick snack, got our packs on and started up the trail. The sky was blue and still no clouds to be seen, the vegetation was green and lush, there was a slight breeze and the temperature was still very comfortable at somewhere around 70 F. Perfect day for a hike. The initial part of the trail is flat along a meadow and provides views up to the edge of the caldera where we are going. At the end of the meadow we started climbing and really did not stop until we reached our turnaround where the trail basically exits the park. Yep, uphill all the way, so there were many stops to catch our breath due to the elevation and the elevation change. We started at about 8,500 feet above sea level, so we would have been a little short on oxygen even with a flat hike, but we were gaining height as we went. In fact, we ended up just a hair over 10,000 feet as we neared the top of the rim. This is a very nice hike with plenty of variety. As mentioned, the initial portion is along a meadow and relatively flat, then the climb through the forested hillside as we worked our way up the caldera rim and finally out in the open as we continued up the side of the rim but in near in a sparsely wooded area which provided wonderful views in all directions. The trail itself is an old road so very easy to follow. Not much in the way of signage but it was not needed as the track of the road is very obvious. The road still gets some use as we saw tire tracks in places and later in the hike there was a truck driving up the road, but more on that shortly. We had pretty good luck with critter sightings along the trail. Ranger Jacob told us we would see elk and he was correct as not long after we started to gain altitude we spotted a cow in the road maybe 40 yards ahead of us. We stopped to see if she was crossing the road or using it as a pathway. Crossing. Good. Then another. And another. Probably seven or eight cows and maybe one bull crossed the road and continued at the trot through the woods below us. OK, that was worth the price of admission (well, admission was free, but you know what I mean). There were also plenty of birds, but most were gone birds or were hiding in the foliage. Other than a Robin the only one that I got a half-way decent photo of was a House Wren (confirmed again by Bird Forum but at least I guessed it correctly). Loads of butterflies but again they were flitting about so much that photos were nearly impossible. There were several big swallowtails along the lower park of the trail but higher up were swarms made of a variety of medium and small ones: yellows ranging from pale to bright with shades including canary and butterscotch, orange and brown, little blue ones that just would not sit for a portrait, and tiny brown or black ones. We saw and heard several woodpeckers as we walked through the trees. It was difficult to get a good look due to their moving about, the cover from the trees and the lighting (lots of shadows), so we never got a firm handle on the exact species. One seemed mostly black with a white color and white on its tail and another certainly had red on its head. The closest that I could guess after looking at the species list after the trip was that maybe these were a Williamson's Sapsucker and a Red-naped Sapsucker, respectively, but no way to know for sure so we'll just go with woodpeckers of some sort. Once out of the trees, about 2.4 miles from the trailhead, the views opened up. The initial views were looking up at the rim of the caldera but as we continued higher we could look back across the open bottom of the caldera. The best views were along the last stretch as we climbed the mostly bare slope of the caldera rim. Just after we broke out of the woods I just happened to glimpse a piece of plastic laying on the trail. Litter here? Not exactly. It was someone's park pass. The name was illegible but maybe it belongs to the folks who are out here ahead of us (they must be ahead of us as we have seen no one else on the trail so far, which is quite the bonus). Worst case is that we'll turn it in at the visitor center. The temperature was still very pleasant, probably a degree or two lower than when we started due to higher elevation. The sky was still a brilliant blue and there were a few fluffy white clouds out on the horizon. Still ideal for hiking. Now that we were more out in the open there were a few interesting landscapes to photograph, trying to incorporate some lone trees (alive and dead) into the slopes and angles of the caldera rim. I played as we marched along in part to keep Lynn moving and partly not to break my own tempo up the hillside. Above half way up the final slope we spotted a truck following us up the trail. It had just emerged from the tree line so it has a ways to go to catch us (as good as the trail along the road it for hiking, it is still not a highway for motor vehicles!). The truck stopped at the bottom of the last uphill section along the face of the caldera rim. In fact, we did not pass the truck until we were on our way back down the trail. We continued up the trail and through the open gate that we reckoned marked the park boundary. The trail leveled out at this point and entered a wooded area. The trail then started to lose some elevation, which we really did not want to do on this side of the ridge line. Since we did not have a detailed map we decided that this would be a good place for our end of the trail and for a snack break. It was not long after our break that we met the truck on the trail. He had also made it through the gate so we were in the wooded section when he caught us. It was kid from New Mexico State, an intern in forestry, out doing chores. We chatted for a bit. Lynn asked him where the road led; basically it continues out into Forest Service land and connects up with another service road. We thought it might switch back and provide access higher up on the caldera rim, but he did not think so. OK, that just confirms that we did good by turning around. We said our goodbyes and all continued on our way. Downhill is so much quicker than uphill when hiking. Not necessarily easier as there is still stress on the knees (maybe more so going down a steep trail). But we made good time on the return trip. Just about the time we were reentering the forested part of the trail, we saw two hikers coming down from the rim. I wonder if they were the folks who lost the park pass. Maybe they will catch us and we can find out. Spoiler: they never did. We had the trail to ourselves for the return hike. We did not see another soul, human at least, until we reached the trailhead. There were still plenty of birds and butterflies, plus some interesting squirrels (Abert's we think), but we were the only people and we enjoyed the solitude immensely. Back at the trailhead, the fishermen in the F-250 had completed their angling duties for the day and were lounging about, most likely telling stories about the one that got away (that's what me and my fishing buddies used to do after a day of wading the trout streams back in West Virginia). It was around 2:15 when we were back in the car and driving away from the number 12 trailhead.

Hiking/Backpacking

New Mexico, United States

time : Jun 10, 2017 10:42 AM

duration : 3h 32m 10s

distance : 6.1 mi

total_ascent : 1711 ft

highest_point : 10046 ft

avg_speed : 1.7 mi/h

user_id : OhioHick

user_firstname : Allen

user_lastname : Arrington

The drive through the caldera was wonderful. The dirt road was in great shape. We were afforded excellent views all along the drive, some across the expanse of the caldera, some taking in the domes and others of the rim, but all beautiful. Not very crowded in the preserve. None of the trailhead parking areas had more than a car or two. We thought the road might degrade the further away from the visitor center we traveled but that was not the case. It was pretty much smooth sailing the entire trip, just a few short stretches of washboard and the typical potholes that are in any dirt road. The only place that was even close to out of the ordinary was just before we reached the trailhead where we had to ford a small creek; very minor obstacle. We were at the trailhead about 10:30. Just under and hour from the visitor center to this point near the northern boundary of the park. There were two other vehicles at the trailhead for park road 12 where we were starting our hike. One was parked near the road; probably folks fishing in the stream a few hundred yards out in the meadow. The other was parked near the trailhead sign so these folks are probably out on the trail somewhere. OK, we won't have the trail all to ourselves, but pretty darn close. We had a quick snack, got our packs on and started up the trail. The sky was blue and still no clouds to be seen, the vegetation was green and lush, there was a slight breeze and the temperature was still very comfortable at somewhere around 70 F. Perfect day for a hike. The initial part of the trail is flat along a meadow and provides views up to the edge of the caldera where we are going. At the end of the meadow we started climbing and really did not stop until we reached our turnaround where the trail basically exits the park. Yep, uphill all the way, so there were many stops to catch our breath due to the elevation and the elevation change. We started at about 8,500 feet above sea level, so we would have been a little short on oxygen even with a flat hike, but we were gaining height as we went. In fact, we ended up just a hair over 10,000 feet as we neared the top of the rim. This is a very nice hike with plenty of variety. As mentioned, the initial portion is along a meadow and relatively flat, then the climb through the forested hillside as we worked our way up the caldera rim and finally out in the open as we continued up the side of the rim but in near in a sparsely wooded area which provided wonderful views in all directions. The trail itself is an old road so very easy to follow. Not much in the way of signage but it was not needed as the track of the road is very obvious. The road still gets some use as we saw tire tracks in places and later in the hike there was a truck driving up the road, but more on that shortly. We had pretty good luck with critter sightings along the trail. Ranger Jacob told us we would see elk and he was correct as not long after we started to gain altitude we spotted a cow in the road maybe 40 yards ahead of us. We stopped to see if she was crossing the road or using it as a pathway. Crossing. Good. Then another. And another. Probably seven or eight cows and maybe one bull crossed the road and continued at the trot through the woods below us. OK, that was worth the price of admission (well, admission was free, but you know what I mean). There were also plenty of birds, but most were gone birds or were hiding in the foliage. Other than a Robin the only one that I got a half-way decent photo of was a House Wren (confirmed again by Bird Forum but at least I guessed it correctly). Loads of butterflies but again they were flitting about so much that photos were nearly impossible. There were several big swallowtails along the lower park of the trail but higher up were swarms made of a variety of medium and small ones: yellows ranging from pale to bright with shades including canary and butterscotch, orange and brown, little blue ones that just would not sit for a portrait, and tiny brown or black ones. We saw and heard several woodpeckers as we walked through the trees. It was difficult to get a good look due to their moving about, the cover from the trees and the lighting (lots of shadows), so we never got a firm handle on the exact species. One seemed mostly black with a white color and white on its tail and another certainly had red on its head. The closest that I could guess after looking at the species list after the trip was that maybe these were a Williamson's Sapsucker and a Red-naped Sapsucker, respectively, but no way to know for sure so we'll just go with woodpeckers of some sort. Once out of the trees, about 2.4 miles from the trailhead, the views opened up. The initial views were looking up at the rim of the caldera but as we continued higher we could look back across the open bottom of the caldera. The best views were along the last stretch as we climbed the mostly bare slope of the caldera rim. Just after we broke out of the woods I just happened to glimpse a piece of plastic laying on the trail. Litter here? Not exactly. It was someone's park pass. The name was illegible but maybe it belongs to the folks who are out here ahead of us (they must be ahead of us as we have seen no one else on the trail so far, which is quite the bonus). Worst case is that we'll turn it in at the visitor center. The temperature was still very pleasant, probably a degree or two lower than when we started due to higher elevation. The sky was still a brilliant blue and there were a few fluffy white clouds out on the horizon. Still ideal for hiking. Now that we were more out in the open there were a few interesting landscapes to photograph, trying to incorporate some lone trees (alive and dead) into the slopes and angles of the caldera rim. I played as we marched along in part to keep Lynn moving and partly not to break my own tempo up the hillside. Above half way up the final slope we spotted a truck following us up the trail. It had just emerged from the tree line so it has a ways to go to catch us (as good as the trail along the road it for hiking, it is still not a highway for motor vehicles!). The truck stopped at the bottom of the last uphill section along the face of the caldera rim. In fact, we did not pass the truck until we were on our way back down the trail. We continued up the trail and through the open gate that we reckoned marked the park boundary. The trail leveled out at this point and entered a wooded area. The trail then started to lose some elevation, which we really did not want to do on this side of the ridge line. Since we did not have a detailed map we decided that this would be a good place for our end of the trail and for a snack break. It was not long after our break that we met the truck on the trail. He had also made it through the gate so we were in the wooded section when he caught us. It was kid from New Mexico State, an intern in forestry, out doing chores. We chatted for a bit. Lynn asked him where the road led; basically it continues out into Forest Service land and connects up with another service road. We thought it might switch back and provide access higher up on the caldera rim, but he did not think so. OK, that just confirms that we did good by turning around. We said our goodbyes and all continued on our way. Downhill is so much quicker than uphill when hiking. Not necessarily easier as there is still stress on the knees (maybe more so going down a steep trail). But we made good time on the return trip. Just about the time we were reentering the forested part of the trail, we saw two hikers coming down from the rim. I wonder if they were the folks who lost the park pass. Maybe they will catch us and we can find out. Spoiler: they never did. We had the trail to ourselves for the return hike. We did not see another soul, human at least, until we reached the trailhead. There were still plenty of birds and butterflies, plus some interesting squirrels (Abert's we think), but we were the only people and we enjoyed the solitude immensely. Back at the trailhead, the fishermen in the F-250 had completed their angling duties for the day and were lounging about, most likely telling stories about the one that got away (that's what me and my fishing buddies used to do after a day of wading the trout streams back in West Virginia). It was around 2:15 when we were back in the car and driving away from the number 12 trailhead.