Valles Caldera Rim Trip Report Forest Road 280 to Los Griegos
South Rim
Date: November 13, 2006 Purpose: Continue survey of south rim from the junction of the rim with Forest Road 280 westward. Participants: Dorothy Hoard, Yvonne Delamater Equipment: Garmin Global Positioning System Model GPS 12; digital camera Olympus Camedia C-3000; notebooks. Yvonne now has a GPS unit. Strategy: Drive up FR280 to rim. Hike westward on the motorcycle trail around Las Conchas to Peralta Pass and hopefully up Los Griegos. Conclusions: The motorcycle trail traverses the rim from Paso del Norte to Paliza Pass. It is a good well-kept trail suitable for a hiking trail. We saw tracks of one or two bikes, but no sign of heavy traffic. This section has some viewpoints westward. The Conchas section is a quiet, pleasant walk though a well-wooded area. The area becomes heavily roaded from Peralta Ridge to Paliza Pass. An abandoned logging road and cowpaths lead up Los Griegos. It is a fairly easy climb from the south side. Trip Report: We drove up FR280, then onto FR281 and zig-zaged up the road to within sight of the gate for the microwave towers. There is a hunters’ camping spot right on the rim with room for a couple of cars. We parked here and walked up FR281 to the cattle guard at the intersection of the rim and Peralta Ridge. There is a welter of roads here. We blundered downhill toward Paliza Pass, mostly following the Salzman hiking guide. The roads are deeply rutted and very steep, with lots of leftover logging mess; not very pleasant, but it does have some open views to the northwest. Griegos blocks other directions.
The fence and meadow at Paliza Pass; view NE to Los Conchas.
A welter of logging roads on the east side of Paliza Pass, some in use.
Paliza Pass is a pretty place with a nice meadow. An allotment fence runs along the rim. A road crosses the pass at a gate in the fence, as does a little hikers’ gate with an improvised cattle guard. The motorcycle trail goes through the hikers’ gate and follows the fence westward toward Griegos massif.
“Cattle guard” on trail at Paliza Pass; view north to Redondo. 1
South Rim
From Paliza Pass looking west up Los Griegos.
A bridge over the draw; road to Cerro Pelado beyond.
The meadow at Paliza Pass, looking south.
The road up Griegos was once wide and well-made.
The motorcycle trail veers south at the base of Griegos. We followed it downhill (reluctantly) to the little draw between Griegos and Cerro Pelado. There was an odd little bridge over the shallow wash, an aspen with dendroglyph 6-25-79, and a logging road going up the Griegos side. Yvonne had been here before and knew that the road would lead us to the meadow near the top. This was obvious grazing pasture; we saw no cows, but lots of dung. The road led to the meadow on the south slope of Griegos; from there, cowpaths lead to the ridge. I was really surprised with Griegos, a long narrow screwdriver shape ridge. It has an almost pure stand of southwestern white pine, Pinus strobiformis, that normally occurs as isolated specimens. The cones are exceptionally large. There is concern about the species. It is susceptible to white pine blister rust, which has been found on Santa Clara Pueblo!
The meadow on the south side of Griegos has a view eastward of Peralta Ridge with Las Conchas Peak at its north (left) end. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains across the Rio Grande Valley are on the far, far horizon.. 2
South Rim
The Griegos Ridge is long and narrow, extending about one-quarter mile east-west. We did not go very far west. The views to the north were restricted because of the heavy forest. The weather was closing in and we could see snow coming. I did not want to get caught in it so we started back. Yvonne showed me a structure of piled rocks they had found on a previous trip. It look sort of, but not quite, like an Indian shrine. Too new—maybe a sheep corral? I wanted to see if we could go off the east end of the ridge down to Paliza Pass, so we followed the allotment fence on the rim itself. Soon, however, the fence came to a cliff and stopped, so we retreated and returned the way we had come up. By now it was snowing, but little accumulated on the ground and we hiked, then drove, out with no trouble.
Yvonne and the southwestern white pine.
Informant: Dorothy Hoard
Views from Griegos are restricted; looking east along the rim over Rabbit Mountain to Cerro Grande and Pajarito Mountain. The structure on Los Griegos.
Looking northeast over Valle Grande to Pajarito Mountain, “Cerro Bonito” and Caballo Mountain. 3
The allotment fence runs down the rim to a set of cliffs.
South Rim
Logging road (left) up the south meadows of Los Griegos.
Blue diamond ski trail off FR4A going up to Peralta Ridge.
November 13, 2006, FR281 to Los Griegos. Rim = red, Peralta road FR280 = purple, FR281 = dark green, our route = bright green. We hiked up and back from the parking area on FR281.
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