Valles Caldera Rim Trip Report Tent Rocks area

West Rim

Date: Monday, July 14, 2008 Purpose: determine feasibility of a trail on the rim off Forest Road 376 south of State Road 126 near Fenton Hill. Participants: Dorothy Hoard, Yvonne Delamater. Equipment: Garmin Global Positioning System Model GPS 12; digital camera Olympus Camedia C-3000; notebooks. Methodology: Park off FR 376, walk over to and south down rim, loop back to car. Conclusion: The rim goes over a steep hill between SR126 and a forest camping area right on the edge of San Antonio Canyon. We did not climb this hill. The rim here has a steep-sided mesa to ascend and descend between the forest parking area and the tent rocks . This area was burned, probably in the 70s or early 80s. Views are very good into the caldera west of Redondo Peak; however, it doesn’t look much like a caldera. There were many informal camping places along FR376, even suitable for RVs. FR604 is a good dirt road that goes past the tent rocks. This is grazing country with many well-maintained fences. Trip Report: We parked off Forest Road 376 a few hundred yards south of the junction with State Road 126. FR 376 is an excellent gravel road, smooth and well maintained. We parked in an informal camping area with lots of access roads winding amidst the trees. It is monsoon season and the weather was overcast the entire trip. We hiked south along the rim; this whole area was laced with roads and wide parking areas for camping or picnicking. It is well-used.

Many views of La Cueva from along this rim. Redondo Peak upper right.

Unimproved forest campground with many roads amidst the trees.

At the south end is a steep hill going up onto a mesa. At the base, informal trails led to the rim and the views, but they soon died out. The views are into the northern part of La Cueva. We climbed the hill straight up. It was quite difficult—about 160 feet high, very steep and sandy so footing was not stable. At the top is a barbed wire fence, we presumed a drift fence to keep cattle away from the rim. 1

The area has many fences and dog-hair aspen stands.

West Rim

Looking north up San Antonio Canyon at the SR126 road cut.

The top of this hillock is level. This area was burned (I think in the late 1970s or early 1980s). The mesa top is covered with aspen. Yvonne called it doghair aspen, which is a pretty good description—small trees very close together. Evergreens grow along the rim. None of them have burned trunks so we presumed they grew after the fire. This rim obviously gets a lot of lightning strikes in these evergreens. There are logging stumps here, so somewhere there must be a road up onto this mesa.

Views of the tent rocks gradually became more spectacular as we hiked south. FR604 at dip in rim. There had been a faint trail along this rim. It became more distinct as we neared the tent rocks. A primitive trail leads off the mesa and 160 feet down to FR604 that loops up a small canyon here. There are no recreational improvements but obviously people stop to see the views. So did we. We climbed out of this little canyon and proceeded south along the rim. There is a fence here parallel to the rim, posted No Trespassing—old and faded signs, but the fence has new, taut wire. We soon came to a corner, with a second fence perpendicular to the rim. This fence was also posted. We presumed the posted fences demarked private property, but the map shows the top here as all Forest Service. We came to a road with a wire gate and went through, then tried to angle back to the rim. We soon came to another fence perpendicular to the rim. The wire was new, but some of the ties were rusty. The

Lightning strikes are common along this rim

In about 500 meters (quarter mile), we came to viewpoints overlooking the tent rocks. They became more spectacular as we walked along the top of the rim. The tent rocks lie at the head of a canyon below the rim. There are roads below the tent rocks serving a number of houses. Several houses were under construction. Yvonne said she and Norm once stayed in La Cueva overnight and she jogged up one of the roads to the base of the tent rocks.

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West Rim

We also followed this fence back to a gate on a road. It too had a wire gate but the loop wire was barbed and one of the barbs was deeply embedded in the post so that we could not lift it off. We cheated by unwrapping a strand of the wire holding up the other end of the fence, and managed to wiggle through the opening. We angled back to the rim and encountered another fence. This time we undid a tie on one of the wires and crawled through. It too had new, taut wire. This mesa is also covered with dog-hair stands of aspen

Tent rocks as seen from FR604.

Gate on drivable road. Note dog-hair aspen.

wire wrapped around some trees but the builder had put small aspen branches around the trunks to protect them from the barbs.

We soon came to a cliff overlooking Wildcat Canyon. It was obviously an arduous climb down to the pass and would be a long walk back to the car. The weather was closing in, so we turned back. We walked west along the rim of Wildcat Canyon and found a trail down the caldera rim. We continued walking west along the mesa and soon came to a road. We followed this and came to FR607. We found a well-bermed abandoned road going toward the tent rocks and took it back to FR604 at the tent rock turn. Here it began to rain; we followed FR604 to FR376 back to the car. It poured the entire way. Both roads withstood the rain well enough. There were some campers set up along the way in innumerable informal camping spots. Informant: Dorothy Hoard. Drive time; 8:30 to about 9:15; return to car at 3:15.

Fence line perpendicular to rim, presumably an allotment fence.

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West Rim

The rim at Wildcat Canyon that drains east into San Antonio Canyon. Note the road that circles mesa below cliffs.

Looking westward from the head of Virgin Canyon. A road comes up this canyon from FR607.

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West Rim

July 14, 2008, Tentrocks off FR376: Rim = red, SR126 = purple, our route = bright green.

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