VallesCaldera.com – The independent news source about the Valles Caldera

We hope you enjoy this video we created, which includes over 100 majestic views from the Valles Caldera, set to some glorious musical masterpieces.  All photos were taken by VallesCaldera.com, except for the photos from space, which were taken by NASA astronauts.  About 80% of the pictures were photographed from behind the gates of the Valles Caldera National Preserve (and all were taken within the rim of the Valles Caldera). To watch this video, click below.

For Christmas Eve, we take a moment to experience the Valles Caldera through the eyes of a boy, Friday Barthuli, who at the time this was created was nine years old:

Yesterday’s Albuquerque Journal North included a letter to the editor written by the owner of VallesCaldera.com:

Let Park Service Run Valles Caldera

Re: the Nov. 15 letter stating that it would be premature to abolish the Valles Caldera Preservation Act because “it is worth waiting to see whether the Valles Caldera Preserve trustees can achieve” financial self-sufficiency:

The chairman of the Valles Caldera Trust, Stephen Henry, has himself explicitly given up hope of the preserve ever achieving profitability. For example, in an Oct. 9, 2009, letter to the Government Accountability Office [on p. 37], Henry writes: “Simply stated, the Valles Caldera Trust can never achieve financial independence under this legal regime.”

The preserve’s executive director, Gary Bratcher, also expressed this belief on Oct. 19 in a letter written to Sens. Bingaman and Udall [on p. 5]: “[The Valles Caldera Preservation Act] is defective. … The requirement that the Trust be financially self-sustaining is impossible to achieve.”

Therefore, all sides involved in the discussion about the future of one of the most treasured pieces of public land in New Mexico now recognize that it will never be financially self-sufficient.

Since it is now clear to managers of the preserve, as well as the local community, that this “experiment in land management” has failed and that its enabling legislation is defective, it is time for Congress to put a halt to the ill-fated trust experiment and place the preserve under the supervision of experienced, professional land managers, such as the National Park Service, the agency that ably manages the preserve’s neighboring Bandelier National Monument to much local satisfaction.

Jonathan Neal
Jemez Springs

The first heavy snowstorm of the season blanketed the Valles Caldera on Monday and Tuesday. At least 10 inches of snow was measured near the Valles Caldera community of Sierra los Piños (elev. 8,200 ft.), while the Pajarito Mountain Ski Area (elev. 10,440 ft.), located on the Caldera’s eastern rim, reported 22 inches of new powder. The photo shown above, taken this afternoon, features a newly-coated Redondo Peak (elev. 11,254 ft.) from the south, the day after the storm left New Mexico and moved on to the Midwest.

In June, Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall (D-NM) asked the National Park Service to prepare a reconnaissance study assessing the feasibility of including the Valles Caldera as part of the National Park System and operating it as a National Park Service preserve.  This report has been identified by Sen. Udall as a tool that that will help the New Mexico Congressional Delegation “take stock of where we are today” as a precursor for determining “the options in the future” regarding management possibilities for the Caldera.

According to a source close to this report in the National Park Service, the release of the study, which was drafted by officials in the Denver office of the NPS, is “getting pretty close.”  The source said that a draft of the report was completed in mid-October, and is currently “being refined and corrected” as a result of a second level of review that is being conducted by officials in Washington, D.C.

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The Valles Caldera National Preserve has been selected to host the 2010 National 4-H Wildlife Habitat Evaluation Program (WHEP) Invitational next summer.  According to the Preserve, more than 100 children and adults will gather in the Caldera for education and competition during the five-day event.  The WHEP is “dedicated to teaching wildlife and fisheries habitat management to youth in the United States.”

The participants in the event, which will be held from July 25 to July 29, will be housed at the Hilltop House Hotel in Los Alamos, rather than at the Preserve’s new Science and Education Center in Jemez Springs, which the Preserve is spending $111,000 annually to lease.

The winter recreation season at the Valles Caldera National Preserve will begin on December 26, 2009, according to the Preserve. Currently closed to the public since the summer recreation season ended, the Preserve’s gates will be open daily December 26th through January 3rd, from 9 AM to 5 PM. Subsequently, the gates will be open on Saturdays and Sundays from 9 AM to 5 PM through March 21, 2010, upon which public access will be closed until the summer recreation season begins (usually in May). The gates will be closed on weekdays during the winter.

The Preserve will be offering two free public appreciation days during the winter recreation season, on December 28th and 29th, during which skiing and snowshoeing will be available to the public for free.

On all other days, skiing and snowshoeing will be offered at the following prices: $10 per adult, $8 per senior (62 years and over), $5 per child (6-15 years) and free for children 5 years old and younger.

Other special events will be offered this winter:

• A New Year’s Eve celebration will be held on Dec. 31 from 6 PM to 1 AM, featuring fireworks, hot cider, and refreshments. Admission to this event will be $25 per adult, $20 per senior (62 years and over), $15 per child (6-15 years) and will be free for children 5 years old and younger.

• Moonlight skiing and snowshoeing will be offered from 6-10 PM on January 30 and February 27. Admission will be $15 per adult, $12 per senior (62 years and over), $10 per child (6-15 years) and will be free for children 5 years old and younger.

• Hour-long sleigh rides will be offered on certain days during the winter recreation season. Check the Preserve’s reservations page for more detailed schedules. Sleigh rides will cost $30 per adult, $24 per senior (62 years and over), $15 per youth (6-15 years) and will be free for kids 5 years and younger.