Along Highway 4, northwest of Albuquerque and west of Santa Fe, in the Jemez Mountains is one of the most stunning scenic views anywhere. It is Valle Grande, a part of the Valles Caldera National Preserve, described here last week in the words of Scott Momaday:
Of all the places that he knew, this valley alone could reflect the great spatial majesty of the sky. It scooped out of the dark peaks like the well of a great, gathering storm, deep umber and blue and smoke-colored. The view across the diameter was magnificent; it was an unbelievably great expanse. As many times as he had been there in the past, each new sight of it always brought him up short, and he had to catch his breath. Just there, it seemed, a strange and brilliant light lay upon the world, and all the objects in the landscape were washed clean and set away in the distance. In the morning sunlight the Valle Grande was dappled with the shadows of clouds and vibrant with rolling winter grass. The clouds were always there, huge, sharply described, and shining in the pure air. But the great feature of the valley was its size. It was almost too great for the eye to hold, strangely beautiful and full of distance. Such vastness makes for illusion, a kind of illusion that comprehends reality, and where it exists there is always wonder and exhilaration. He looked at the facets of a boulder that lay balanced on the edge of the land, and the first thing beyond, the vague misty field out of which it stood, was the floor of the valley itself, pale and blue-green, miles away. He shifted the focus of his gaze, and he could just make out the clusters of dots that were cattle grazing along the river in the faraway plain.
Maintaining that sublime view is more easily promised than done. Writing in the Santa Fe Reporter, Laura Paskus gives us an update on the National Preserve and its unique management plan. Some background from the article:
In 2000, when the federal government bought the private Baca Ranch in the Jemez Mountains for $97 million and created the Valles Caldera National Preserve, that move in and of itself was seen as a victory.
The 89,000-acre preserve sits about 50 miles from Santa Fe and spreads across a million-year-old collapsed volcanic crater, as well as grassy valleys, volcanic domes and the 11,254-foot-tall Redondo Peak. The thought of those lands finally being open to the public had elk hunters, trout fishermen, backpackers, cross country skiers and ranchers alike champing at the bit.
The preserve was set up to run like no other in the country. It was to function as a working ranch, be financially self-sufficient and managed by a nine-member trust, rather than the US Forest Service or National Park Service.
In the early days, that trust, a Clinton-appointed board, worked well with the Valles Caldera Coalition, a group of conservation, recreational and ranching groups that lobbied for the preserve’s creation and remain involved now.
“Our approach was not to be confrontational, but to work collaboratively with the board of trustees,” says Ernie Atencio, who was the coalition’s first co-ordinator from 2001 until 2003.
Those days have changed.
Link via New West Network.