Week 47: chasing waterfalls!

It's feeling like spring in Northern New Mexico!

Apr 27, 2025

Hello, hello! Welcome back to another weekly update on our grand advanture!

Hiking in the Jemez Mountains

When we left off last week, we were parked up near the staff housing at Valles Caldera National Preserve Headquarters in Jemez Springs, New Mexico. We got to stay here since we volunteered to help with the 𝑪𝒂𝒍𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒂 𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆 art exhibit. So on Tuesday (Earth Day!) we just had to hike the trail behind Headquarters up the mesa to see what we could see.

We started out the hike by going over the Jemez River via “Beaver Bridge” — what Ranger Monte named it — and it was good to see the river flowing full from the snow on Saturday:

Then it was up, up, up the mesa to about 7,000 feet in elevation. The views didn’t disappoint!

Wow. Just wow.

I love the red rocks here and couldn’t stop taking photos — are you surprised? :)

The tall peak in the distance is Redondo Peak, a resurgent dome in Valles Caldera sacred to many indigenous cultures.

J used the wide aspect ratio on his phone to take some amazing photos:

Then on our way back down I had to take this photo so you could see where we’ve been camped:

That’s the Jemez River on the left, the van towards the middle next to staff housing, and you can even see the Pueblo of Gisewa at Jemez Historic Site in the sunny side on the right.

Wednesday morning we said goodbye to Ranger Lauren and headed off to…

Valles Caldera National Preserve

No trip to this part of New Mexico would be complete without stopping at Valles Caldera National Preserve! I had my very first artist residency here last summer (catch up from the start here) and I get so homesick for it. I just love it out here so much.

The mountains, the valleys, and the fresh pine-scented air forever call my name.

Longmire’s Cabin

After checking in at the Entrance Station we headed up to the Cabin District to visit Longmire’s Cabin — yep, the cabin from the Longmire TV show!

(The official name is the Ranch Foreman’s Cabin, but it will always be Longmire’s Cabin to me!)

I was excited to see a new sign at the cabin with artwork by Heather Heckel! She was an artist-in-resident last year as well, and although we were there at different times I feel like we were kindred spirits.

When I was there for my residency, as I walked from the cabin where we got to stay to the Ranger Station I passed by Longmire’s cabin and it always made me smile!

Cerro la Jara, a young lava dome! She’s only 500,000 years old. :)

We rewatched the series from the beginning during my time there and it was so cool seeing Cerro la Jara, a young lava dome, and Valle Grande in the scenes!

Tres Amigos

Our next stop was to visit what I’ve dubbed the “Tres Amigos” — three tall ponderosa pines that you can spy on from the Valles Caldera webcam at the Ranger Station:

Full confession: I have this webcam bookmarked and I check on it when I get stressed out or need a break. Do you have any webcams that you stalk? Leave me a comment and let me know!

As we headed out of the Cabin District we saw so many prairie dogs — you can almost always see one or two (or three or four) but they’re super hard to photo — they run too fast and dive in their holes!

This one posed for me for a while — isn’t he cute?

Hiking Hidden Valley

Then we just HAD to hike the Hidden Valley Trail (now called Jemez River Trail). I just love it here, it’s one of my favorite front-country trails at the preserve.

The trail starts out past the Missing Cabin (from the movie “The Missing”, not because it was lost, ha!) and then opens up to the valley.

Trail past the Missing Cabin. The movie "The Missing," directed by Ron Howard, and starring Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett, was **filmed at the Valles Caldera National Preserve in New Mexico**.

It always feels so magical here.

Two of my favorite trees on the hike — don’t they seem like they’re talking to each other?

I had to stop and do a quick sketch while sitting on a rock in the sunshine — you can watch a video of it here on Instagram, or tap/click the image below:

sideoats

A post shared by @sideoats

The trail runs along the East Fork of the Jemez River and the sound of the water is so peaceful.

There was still some snow and ice in places which made hiking a little precarious! We heard that last week the valley was filled with snow and required snowshoes!

It seems like there’s a new beautiful view around every corner.

I couldn’t stop taking photos! (Are you surprised?)

I ust love this hike.

Did Someone Say ELK?

My elk radar started going off as we were leaving the Cabin District — so I started scanning and spotted a heard in Valle Grande! I asked J to stop the van so I could try to get a photo — they were a little far away but it had to be done!

Then on our way out of the Caldera we stopped at several overlooks to see if they were still there…

And they were!

The longer we looked the more elk we saw!

I miss Valles Caldera already.

Santa Fe National Forest to Los Alamos

There’s no camping in Valles Caldera, but we did the next best thing and camped in Santa Fe National Forest in a spot adjacent to the preserve.

Back in the forest for a bit! There were so many birds singing — it’s starting to feel like spring has arrived.

It was great to get back out dispersed camping in the forest for a bit. Here was the view from the van — if you look closely in the distance you’ll see the town of Los Alamos:

The city lights really twinkled at night.

The next morning we headed into Los Alamos to run errands, including Natural Grocer’s to get some hard-to-find vegan things (yum!) and we stopped at a car wash and gave the van a bath — he really needed it! It took about an hour and a half and $30 but it was worth it!

Then it was on to…

Bandelier National Monument

I was super eager to visit Bandelier National Monument because we’d heard from Ranger Lauren that the falls were running — and they were!

To get to the falls you take the aptly named Falls Trail, which starts from the Backpacker’s Parking lot and winds its way through a pine-juniper forest until you get to an overlook where you can see the falls:

The last time we were here it was bone dry, so this was so impressive to see!

The trail to the Lower Falls from the overlook. You can make out the Rio Grande River in the distance.

The trail to the Rio Grande is washed out from a flood, but you can hike down the trail to the Lower Falls to reach the canyon floor, then make your way back up the canyon to the Upper Falls.

Here’s where we turned around to make our way back upriver:

This was our turnaround point — there isn’t a (safe) way down!

Here we are making our way upstream:

And then after a scramble up the canyon we turned a corner — and there were the falls!

So cool!

It’s super hard to capture the Upper Falls in photos, so here’s a little video that shows it better:

la.spangler

A post shared by @la.spangler

We brought our water shoes with us and walked up to the falls — the water was super cold! So cold our feet turned pink!

All too soon it was time to make our way back:

There’s so much boxelder along the trail that really creeped us out — we kept thinking it was poison ivy, ha!

What an awesome hike!

That’s a Wrap

That’s it for this week! Saturday we had a camp day and packed away our waterproof hiking boots and our warm slippers — hopefully we’re done with winter. (Especially since J says he’s done with snow!)

We’ll be making our way towards Big Bend National Park next — so stay tuned for some desert adventures!

Lisa Spangler

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