Jemez Mountain Trail

Guest posting by Mona
We continued along the Jemez Trail, viewing many sights that were formed by volcanic eruptions many moons ago. The Valles Grande is a beautiful valley inside of the caldera (think crater on the floor of a ring of volcanoes). The grassy valley is about 17 miles wide & has a working ranch in the middle. I have seen large herds of elk run through here on past visits. We were not disappointed this time. Sew Diva spotted the herd and our cameras started flashing. The ranchers are working out a deal with our government to sell the property for about $100 million so the area will be preserved for public use.


Leaving the grassy oasis, we began descending down the canyon along the Jemez River to visit Battleship Rock, a 200 ft structure jutting amongst a campground filled with juniper, cottonwood, pine, & oak trees. The rock was formed by volcanic eruption & was the source of much fun for our good friend SantaFeBoy, who has told countless stories of climbing to the top while at Camp Shaver when he was in an orphanage in the 1950’s.


The camp kids used to go to Soda Dam & swim in the hot springs below the structure. Driving further down the mountain, we were able to find Soda Dam on the left just before a cattle guard on the highway. The travertine structure has a ridge to walk on, a beach behind the dam, living rock being formed behind it in layers by the dripping water. Walking around to the front side of the dam, you see amazing formations and layers of rock—even a hole in the rock where the Jemez River flows through it, spilling into warm pools. (An interruption by Sew Diva (not a surprise, considering it is me): if you followed Bear and me on our Eastern Europe trip – this is the same stuff that the falls we saw in Croatia were made of. If you didn’t you can see pictures in my June postings for Krka, Plitvice and Rastoke.) Some of the hot springs in the area were about 100 degrees.


Near Jemez Springs, the rocks begin to be a beautiful red. We visited one of my favorite places on the trail, Wallatowa Visitor Center & Red Rocks. Jemez Pueblo runs a gift store where you can find bread baking outside in horno ovens on weekends. We did not score any of this so crossed the highway where cedar smoke alerted me to the place where Jemez women were making fry bread. A beautiful elderly woman was patting dough flat, handing it to a younger woman who placed it in a kettle of oil over a cedar wood fire. We enjoyed our bread with honey & sugar in the presence of red rock walls before heading down the road to Santa Fe.


Dollars saved on this trip with Park Pass: $113.00