Caldera Rim Trip Report VC Road 1402 to Cerro Rubio

East Rim

Date: August 27, 2007 Purpose: Find the highest reasonable route to Cerro Rubio below the Santa Clara Easement. USGS Topographic Map: Valle Toledo Participants: Dorothy Hoard, Yvonne Delamater, Ken Kutac, Ed Jacobson. Equipment: Garmin Global Positioning System Model GPS 12; digital camera Olympus Camedia C-3000; Methodology: I got a permit to enter Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) land, agreeing to give two weeks notice for proposed field trips, to write a final report, and keep a time list for their volunteer log. This trip was to find a logging road from Cerro Rubio to VC1402. We knew one existed because we saw it on Rubio. Conclusions: With the Santa Clara Easement in place, only one route on this northeast corner is feasible. It is an offshoot of VC1402 and is used for vehicular access to Cerro Rubio. The area is steep, has prominent rock fields, and Rubio is mostly rock rubble. We have to conclude that the vehicle road is the most reasonable route in this section. Higher logging roads ended abruptly with no connecting roads leading towards Rubio. The map shows a road near the rim, but it is within the easement. to the next road, which ended at the side of the rock field. It was obvious that this was a very large rock field and the area was quite unsuitable for any type of trail, so we contoured downhill.

Trip Report: Introduction: Following the collapse of the Toledo Caldera, rhyolitic volcanic domes intruded into that caldera to form the Sierra de Toledo and Shell Mountain, the northeastern wall of the Valles Caldera. Most of our walk was over this formation, which had many obsidian inclusions. The face of a Shell Mountain knoll also has a large, bare, rock field. In the 2000 federal purchase of the Baca Location No. 1, Santa Clara Pueblo bought the northeast corner that contains the watershed of Santa Clara Canyon. The enabling legislation gave the pueblo a 1000-foot easement on the Preserve side to exclude vehicles. This easement is marked with orange plastic posts. Some are posted with a sign, “No Access Permitted.” The access road we walked is the lower boundary of this easement; we passed several easement boundary signs. Description: We stopped at the staging corrals at the entrance of the Preserve. Rob Dixon had not informed the security people of our plans. Cathy called Rob, who said that she could give us the gate code in case we came out after 5 PM. Ken Kutac drove us over the Obsidian Valley Road VC05 to Pipeline Road, which we immediately crossed onto VC14. We drove on to VC1402 and thence up this primitive road to the easement boundary, where we parked. The abandoned logging roads were wide and substantial. I chose one which headed uphill in hopes of finding the highest road that contoured over to Cerro Rubio. This road was level; it headed southeast and soon came to an abrupt end. We climbed a bit higher to the next large road, continuing southeast around the slope. This road ended abruptly at the base of a large rock field. We climbed about 50 feet up

Logging roads were wide, but soon came to abrupt ends.

1

We climbed down steep slopes between parallel roads.

East Rim

Two roads later, we came to one that was obviously used; tire tracks recently had beaten down the grasses in the road. We followed this vehicular road to Cerro Rubio. The road contours around a south ridge of Shell Mountain. On the southeast side we found several very fine viewpoints into Valle de los Posos, Rincón de los Soldados, and the east rim of the caldera, even around to Rabbit Mountain.

View to the south. Cerro del Medio mid-ground, south rim beyond.

As we neared Cerro Rubio, a road led up to the caldera rim. We followed it over the rim into the headwaters of Guaje Canyon, here filled with a large rock field. The small road continued on to another knoll of the Shell Mountain complex. Beyond is Forest Service land with the Santa Clara easement on the VCNP side but not on the Forest side. We returned to our vehicular road to Rubio. On this short stretch of road, we were outside the caldera, with the rim a low slope to our right. We walked over to two low passes to check the views, which were undistinguished. The road proceeded up the northeast slope of Rubio, where we encountered another easement boundary marker. I could see up to where we had stopped on our May 7, 2007 trip to Rubio from Camp May. We turned back at the easement post.

The road to Rubio, looking east; Rubio’s south rock face beyond.

Valle de los Posos, rincón de los Soldados, and east rim, looking south.

Looking east to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains down Guaje Canyon. Easement boundary marker 2

East Rim

The road up Rubio.

We needed to know where this road intersects VC1402, so we walked back on the road. We could see the big rock field on Shell Mountain that we visited earlier in the day. However, as we neared the latitude of the truck, which was on the slope above us, the road turned sharply south, away from the truck. It was late so we abandoned the road. Instead, we went up the draw at this turn and soon found VC1402, then proceeded up the road to the truck. As we drove out, Ed noticed a drivable road going into the woods below us. We drove on this road one-half mile to the turn where we had left the Rubio Road, thus confirming the intersection with VC1402.

Shell Mountain rock field on horizon, mushroom on ground

On the drive out, I thought that taking Pipeline Road to Valle de los Posos and VC04 back might be easier. I was mistaken. Pipeline Road was in poor shape and very slow. The weather had held for us very nicely on the hike, but now it began to rain heavily. Even so, the VCNP is a nice place to drive slowly. It had been a good trip. The mountain muhly and pine dropseed grasses were lush, the cutleaf senecio made a grand display of yellow flowers, and we were high enough to see Senecio atratus blooming well. We saw a dead monarch and a live Milbert’s tortoiseshell butterfly. Informant: Dorothy Hoard. Time - 8:AM to 8 PM, hiking – 10:30 to 4:15.

Leaving Cerro Rubio, rim to left, Shell Mountain ahead.

3

East Rim

Red = rim, purple = VC1402 road, green = our hiking route; black = Pueblo of Santa Clara connecting boundary to rim.

4