Valles Caldera Rim Trip Report

South Rim

Emerald Meadow to Bearhead Ridge Date: August 26, 2006 Purpose: find routes to rim from State Road 4 at Peralta Road FR 280. 2) Survey rim eastward to del Norte Pass where we left off on October 5, 2005 Participants: Dorothy Hoard, Yvonne Delamater, Ken Kutac Equipment: Garmin Global Positioning System Model GPS 12; digital camera Olympus Camedia C-3000; notebooks. Yvonne now has a GPS. Strategy: 1) Find the old road that I think came from Bland into the caldera to check for historic features. 2) Continue survey between del Norte Pass and Paliza Pass Conclusion: The section of the rim east of this point is quite narrow; here the rim broadens and is more rounded. A motorcycle Trail traverses the rim from del Norte Pass to Paliza Pass. Logging roads come up to or near the rim from the south. One active road parallels the rim on a contour on the south side. The area is heavily wooded with mixed conifers, often dominated by ponderosa pines on south facing slopes. Views into the caldera are very restricted. There are, however, nice views to the south and west, and of Rabbit Peak. The motorcycle trail is actually quite acceptable. There were tracks of one, maybe two bikes. On the whole the trail is in good shape; someone clears out the deadfall and picks up rubbish. The bikers claim that they built this and other trails on the rim. They actively court the Forest Service so it is unlikely that the trail can be closed to motorcycle traffic. The Forest Service is scoping out closing parts of the forest to motorized use. The motorcyclists are advocating this trail be single track. I think the best we can do is object to double track here. We have never encountered any bikers in our travels yet. Trip Log: Yvonne and I parked on the first turnoff above the cattle guard on FR 280. The area has a short road leading up to a clearing used as a rough campground. I thought this was where the old road came down from the rim, but couldn’t find it. We scrambled up the draw to the rim. At the head of the draw we encountered the old road. Did not follow it now, but expected to return down the road. At the rim is a slight dip in the ridge to accommodate the draw we came up. It had been heavily logged so is open and filled with bright green grass. We referred to it as the Emerald Meadow. The meadow also has large stumps and downed trees.

Emerald Meadow, looking east.

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I thought the old road came up from the south to this point. We went over the ridge and down 50-100 feet only. A road came up to a meadow below us, but we could not find any sign that it actually came up onto the ridge. Very steep. From the west is a passable road that contours along the south hillside into this meadow. We did not follow this road. We turned east and followed the rim. Here is the motorcycle trail we followed on October 5, 2005. The first hill was stony and fairly steep and much eroded by the traffic. Once up onto the hillock, the bike trail improved; it is obviously actively maintained. The rim consists of a series of low knolls here. The trail does not follow the rim precisely, but contours around the knolls on the south side. We followed the rim itself for a time. There are some hints of the old trail I remembered from the 1970s but they are very faint. Lots of deadfall. No matter: the trees are so thick that we could not get a good view into the caldera even from high points on the rim. It was pleasant walk through the woods; we could not hear road noise even though SR4 was not far below us. We walked to the base of the knoll above del Norte Pass, retracing part of the trail that we had done on October 5, 2005. It is a nice section with some large trees. An abandoned logging road comes up from the south to the rim at the base of the del Norte Knoll, and there are stumps in this area.

South Rim

Yvonne followed the road down a bit. It is quite steep. We retraced our steps to Emerald Meadow by following the trail, easier than following the rim. We continued along the motorcycle trail west from Emerald Meadow. It is hillier here so we went up and down more. Ken Kutac caught up with us. (Ken does not like to get up early.) We followed the trail, which contoured along the north side of the ridge. Parts of the trail were fairly steep and were quite eroded. Level parts were generally good though some were becoming incised. This area is heavily wooded with mixed conifers, small, dense, with lots of deadfall. On the whole, the area was clean—no rubbish—and the trail had been recently cleared.

An old abandoned trail I remembered from the 70s is barely discernible on the actual rim,

The motorcycle trail contours along the steep north slope of the rim in dense forest. One of the better views into the caldera.

Old stumps indicate the logging took place a long time ago. 2

Eventually, we came to a well-used road and cattle guard. I believe this was the junction with the road down Bearhead Ridge, but we did not check that out. On the way back, we encountered a horsewoman Ken knew. She lives nearby and objects to motorcycles. She was the only person we saw on the trip. We retraced our steps to Emerald Meadow and followed the old road down to FR 280. The road is weathering and trees encroaching. It has a well-defined single path, fenced on canyon side, and has motorcycle tracks. I can’t tell if it dates to the 1900s Bland era. Some tree roots are cut on the road bank, but no stone work on canyon side. No obvious bulldozer marks. At the bottom of the road, Ken found a blaze on an aspen—1931. The name is not Spanish. It is level and open here and may have been an old campsite, although water is probably a mile away. This road has a gate at FR280 at the cattle guard. We were parked just a few hundred feet up the road.

South Rim

View to the south.

Aspen writing: 1931.

The old road from the valles to the rim, now a motorcycle trail.

Cut tree roots on bank are characteristic of historic roads.

Forest Service blazes on trees indicate routes in use before World War II.

Informant: Dorothy Hoard 3

South Rim

August 26, 2006, The rim at Emerald Meadow. Rim = red, Peralta road FR280 = purple, our route = bright green.

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