NewMexiKen has written about the Valles Caldera previously. The Valle Grande alone, just the one-fourth of the Preserve that’s visible from New Mexico Highway 4, is magnificent.
As Scott Momaday wrote in House Made of Dawn:
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.
Saturday, the Trust that has managed the Preserve since it came into federal ownership in 2000, opened the property to all comers. Normally access is tightly restricted, so it was a big event for many of us — a chance to see the back country, if only from the window of a car. According to local news reports, about 1500 vehicles showed up, more than expected and more than could be accommodated. Rains had washed out parts of the planned tour route and the result was congestion unfitting for such a beautiful place.
Still, we were glad we went. Even driving just a few miles across Valle Grande changed perceptions and made it seem beautiful all over again.
Photos rarely serve the Valle Grande well. For one, its almost too big for the human eye, let alone the two-dimensional reproduction. That said, here a few photos taken Saturday, including some of the traffic. Click any image for a larger version.
Traffic backed up in both directions on Hwy 4 waiting to turn in.
View showing the road into Valle Grande, and a way of travel many of us envied.
Some of the beauty found, especially in our verdant summer of 2006. That’s the East Fork of the Jemez River.
Too beautiful for words. Too beautiful for photos.
Too many car-bound nature lovers snake along at a few miles an hour.
Would you like a rider, good lookin’? How about you? Hmm, maybe not.