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Camp May to Cerro Rubio. Red = rim, purple = public road; bright green = trail; dark green = other road—closed to public vehicles but open to hiking. The summit of Cerro Rubio is within the Valles Caldera National Preserve/Santa Clara boundary easement and closed to public access.
Access: The paved ski hill road from State Road 501 serves Camp May. Pipeline Road crosses the sierra midway between Camp May and Cerro Rubio; it is closed to public vehicular use, but joggers run to the rim up the steep, 5-mile road from Quemazon Communities in Los Alamos. Pipeline Road in the caldera crosses the rim from the west; it is closed to the public.
Valles Caldera East Rim
Camp May to Cerro Rubio
Introduction: This set of reports of the rim of the Valles Caldera is divided into linear sections. Most are anchored at each end by public vehicular access points. This one is not; Cerro Rubio is currently a dead end and the hike must be treated as a round trip from Camp May. There is no connection between Cerro Rubio and the rim at Forest Road 144. The rim between Pajarito Mountain and Cañada Bonita is currently closed under policies of the Valles Caldera National Preserve, (VCNP) as is the summit of Cerro Rubio. These sections are fenced and posted. The remainder of the rim in this section is open to public non-motorized use.
Description: Volcanic flows of the Tschicoma Formation formed the Sierra de los Valles prior to the eruptions that created the Valles Caldera. The distinctive profile of the sierra is due to thick, pasty lava that piled into domes and lumpy knolls. Cerro Rubio, at 10,449 feet, anchors the northern end of the Sierra de los Valles; Pajarito Mountain is at the midpoint of the Sierra at 10,441 feet. Between the north Bonita ridge and Cerro Rubio, the rim is comparatively level. Here it is composed of an intrusion of the same soft Bandelier Rhyolite Tuff that forms the plateaus that surround the caldera.
There is no trail along the rim from Camp May Saddle to Cañada Bonita. A trail is certainly feasible. It is a rather pleasant slope and would make a nice loop trail. However, it is densely forested with no views in any direction, so rationale for a trail would have to be the loop aspect.
Hikers can climb to the Camp May Saddle. Parking is readily available at Camp May, accessed by a dirt road that climbs uphill above the Pajarito Mountain Ski Club paved parking lot. From the SW turn of the Camp May loop, a steep dirt road climbs to the rim, as does a parallel mountain bike trail. This is a fire road and closed to unauthorized use.
Unfortunately, the boundary between the Ski Club property and the VCNP is fenced; current VCNP policies prohibit public access beyond the fence. The fence extends along the saddle and the face of the slope. Looking over the fence, one can’t see into the caldera, but it really doesn’t matter. A dense mixed-conifer forest blocks views into the Valle Grande. Even so, it is worth the climb. The fine meadow that covers the rim at the saddle fills with wildflowers in summer. Views to the east across the Rio Grande Valley to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains are very fine. In themselves, they make the hike worthwhile.
The Ski Club allows public access. An informal trail along the fence on Pajarito Mountain leads up to one of the ski runs, appropriately called Rim Run. High on Rim Run, the views into the caldera become truly spectacular. The ski club gave access to the local mountain bike club for bike trails throughout the ski runs. They ask hikers to stay off the bike trails, but there are other routes.
Back just beyond the end of the pavement at the ski hill parking lot, Forest Trail 285 skirts the eastern slope of the ridge well below the rim. The trail was once a road, but is now closed to unauthorized use. The Nordic Ski Club put in a series of cross country ski trails between the parking lot and Cañada Bonita. The trails are fairly level and are popular hiking routes, especially in the autumn when the aspens turn golden. Cañada Bonita itself is a lovely grassland ringed by aspen groves and dense conifers. Forest Trail 285 goes toward the head of the cañada, which is on the rim, but the VCNP fence crosses the grassland below the actual rim. No matter, there is no view there either.
The view from Rim Run, showing Valle de los Posos, Valle Toledo, and the north rim of the Valles Caldera. The rim is along the tree line at left, then extends up the ridge at the upper right. Camp May Saddle is at the bottom of the run.
 
The rim at Cañada Bonita is fenced off.. Bonita Pass is densely forested. Rim to left.
From Cañada Bonita, FT 285 leads north over a densely wooded pass. The VCNP fence leaves the rim and plunges into the caldera down through a very steep, densely forested terrain. FT 285 extends north paralleling the level rim. Trees line the rim, but occasionally there are clearings with views down into the caldera. Views of the orange tuff cliffs are very nice. The view from the pipeline cut into the Valle de los Posos is excellent and is often a destination for hikers from Camp May. The pipeline is a large natural gas line from Farmington to the Rio Grande Valley that crosses the northern valles of the caldera.
 
Left: The Pipeline Cut frames the view of the Valles de los Posos and Cerro de los Abrigos in the caldera. Right: Tuff cliffs mark this section of the rim.
The road that traverses this level section of the rim is an old route that predates the pipeline construction in the 1950s. On many of the trees are old blazes that the Forest Service used to mark its routes through the forests. Old carvings appear on several aspens. This road is a fire road that connects to Los Alamos, It has been closed to public motorized access since the Cerro Grande Fire of 2000. Before the closing, this was a popular area where hunters came up in autumn to set up camps. Extreme runners still dash around on these old roads.
At the northern end of the sierra, Forest Trail 285 descends into Guaje Canyon. This is the easiest route to climb Caballo Mountain (which is not to be confused with easy). Caballo Mountain is not on the rim of the Valles Caldera but was on the rim of its predecessor, the Toledo Caldera. Near the end of the road at the base of Cerro Rubio, a line of cairns leads up the eastern slope of the little peak. It is a pleasant route that someone obviously maintains on occasion. Cerro Rubio was once a volcanic vent; it is now a massive pile of broken rocks so hard that a million years of weathering has not softened the sharp edges. As the cairn trail climbs the slope, the ground becomes more and more rocky. The route crosses two fences, both with the wire down, evidence that the Forest boundary with the VCNP has moved in the past. A short distance beyond the second fence is an abandoned logging road.. In the 1970s, lumbermen logged the hills of the caldera very heavily, including Cerro Rubio. Looking around, one wonders why. The road is nothing but stone chips and must have been very difficult to build. The trees are not large here nor are the stumps remaining from the logging era. The real wonder, though, is the caldera fence. It cuts this road at the north and south ends (the summit is on the VCNP). The fence is a straight line approximating the rim—down into the caldera and up Pajarito Mountain to the south; In the north it goes over the awful breaks of Santa Clara Canyon past Shell Mountain.
Beyond Cerro Rubio, the rim bends to the northwest over to the pass between Santa Clara Canyon and the Rito de los Indios. This section of the rim is the boundary between the VCNP and Santa Clara Pueblo. The boundary is fenced and the pueblo has aggressively put up signage against trespass. In addition, the pueblo has an easement of 1000 and 3000 feet on the VCNP side of the fence. The message is very clear: No Trespassing.
 
Left: VCNP fence heads south to Pajarito Mountain. Right: VCNP fence heads north over Shell Mountain. Tschicoma Peak in background. Note the rocky road bed.
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