Today, Sunday, December 30, 2007, turned into a bit of an adventure, tho’ not quite what I’d planned. Feeling the lack of exercise, too cold and too much snow to climb around the back country the way I’ve gotten spoiled with, I decided to take a friend’s advice and go snow-shoeing. I’m not a cold weather fan, but neither do I like being cooped up in the house like a prisoner. Last weekend’s hike up Atalaya Mountain was strenuous, but the cold wasn’t too bad so today I headed for the snowshoe/cross-country ski area up in huge Valles Caldera, an enormous volcano about 40 miles away that blew its’ top over a million years ago and deposited all the ash that makes the caves and formations at Bandelier Nat. Mon. and at Tent Rocks.

When heading west, within a few miles you’ll cross the Rio Grande River. Lately, the temperature has been in the low to mid teens (F) at night and 25º to 35º in the daytime. This really showed at 10:30 this morning on the Rio Grande. It’s *almost* frozen over and is more like thick slush than water. Outside air temp was 22º……………

Remember my climb of Otowi Peak ( http://gogittum.com/blog/?cat=17 ) a few months ago ? Here’s the crocodile head from the north, taken from the highway leading to White Rock and Los Alamos. Looks a lot different from this angle, doesn’t it ?…………….

Climb the long hill up onto the plateau and just past White Rock, the ever present Chicoma Peak ( http://gogittum.com/blog/?cat=39 ) rears its’ huge, distinctive, triangular head. This great peak is visible from just about everywhere in the Santa Fe area……………

A few miles farther on, just about at the entrance to Bandelier National Monument, I saw the 2nd un-afraid Coyote of my career. The 1st was at Scotty’s Castle ( http://webpictures.homestead.com/valley2.html ) in Death Valley a few years ago. This guy looked around when he saw the truck, started to run, saw he had nowhere to run to, so just stood there, looked sulky and watched me while I took a string of pictures………………

Then, up the long, winding hill to almost 10,000 ft elevation, over the rim and down into enormous Valles Caldera. They figure this giant was over 25,000 ft high before it exploded, and now the crater is over 12 miles across. Chicoma Peak is the northern extreme of this caldera, and the crater was used for years as a cattle ranch. Now it’s a tourist destination, and a local favorite for cross-country ski-ing and snowshoeing. I wasn’t able to find rental snowshoes in Santa Fe, so took pot luck and hoped they’d have some at the Visitor’s Center. Nope. Here’s the road into the Center…………….

I had to make a pit stop, so pulled off the road like a nice guy, so’s others could get by me. Shouldn’ta done that. There’s a pretty good drop at the side of the road and the heavy truck slid off into the ditch. 4WD, heavy all weather tires and limited slip differential got together to claw the Diesel Dodge out of this hole. Plowed along the road for quite a way before the front wheels were able to lift up out of the ditch…………

At the center is literally almost nothing. A couple of pleasant fellas in a shoebox of a room with a few T-shirts for sale. They did tell me where to find rental snowshoes in Santa Fe, so I’ll take a look. Meantime, in the parking lot were 3 women and a young man getting ready to head out. Looked to me like 3 generations of ladies, (mother, daughter, grand-daughter ?) and all 4 people were very pleasant and friendly. The ladies took off on their own, almost at a run, and left the man to catch up. He was kind enuf to give me a quick demo of the ’shoes, then headed after the girls. I was amazed at how small the snowshoes were, and he sunk clear to the ground with each step. (only about a foot of snow here) I dunno………I think I want something more than that if’n I go into deep snow…………..

Nothin’ there for Lar today, and it were awful cold - 17º F - so I headed back toward the highway. Easing along the icy road, a small bird flew up in front of me and fluttered along for a long way before finally settling down at the side of the road. Must’ve been tired, ’cause he let the clattering Diesel Dodge go right past him, so I cut the engine, coasted to a stop and leaned out the window. He looked at me for a bit, so I started clicking. I *think* this is a Horned Lark. Cute little guy, about 6″ long, including tail……………….

Farther along the road, I saw a pickup with a huge horse trailer approaching, so eased off onto the side of the road, mindful of my little adventure earlier. Whoops……..no shoulder here - this time the Diesel Dodge went waaaay down, and I was stuck solid…………..

Some folks in an SUV tried to pull the truck out - I carry a 30 ft / 40,000 lb test tow strap - but they just couldn’t move me. Nice of ‘em to try, so they went on into the Center and told them I needed a pull. About 20 minutes later, the Ranger came with a ¾ ton 4WD truck and yanked me back onto the road and away I went. Pheeee-eeeewww……..! ! ! On the way down the side of the Caldera there are several huge canyons, and magnificent views to the south and east. Here’s the southern fragments of the old volcano on the far side of a big canyon…………..

This was a short day, but an active one, and quite an education. In a week or 3 - when there’s more snow - I’ll go back for another look and in the meantime I’ll check out that shop to see about renting snowshoes.

Posted: December 30th, 2007 under 07-12-30 Valles Caldera, 08 New Mexico.
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