Rabbit Mountain Loop - Greg Kendall - 8/05

In August 2005, Rourke McDermott (VCNP Landscape Architect), Marty Peale(Coordinator of the Valles Caldera Coalition) and I set out to find good trails in the Rabbit Mountain area of the Valles Caldera National Preserve on the south side of HWY 4. We started from the access gate for the Coyote Call Trail (Free Preserve Trail).

After a few trial and error trips up the mountain I was able to map out this wonderful trail loop that includes fantastic vistas of the Valle Grande and the Sandia Mountains to the southeast. The Blue lines above are existing logging roads. Red is the proposed route over the top of Rabbit Mountain.

Marty Peale, Peter O'Rourke and Rourke McDermott at the bottom of the Coyote Call Trail discussing possible routes.

View of the Valles Grande from the top of Rabbit Mountain. Fantastic.

A Rim Trails connection could come up from the east side of the map where the blue line (Coyote Call Trail) ends and follow the ridge up to Rabbit Mountain and then down a beautiful grassy ridge line to the red 3 on the map on the left side. An existing animal trail then drops down to Forest Road 268 where a motorcycle trail can be followed from there to continue West. The Bandelier National Monument Alamo Trail ends near where the east side blue line ends (actually just east of it). The Alamo Trail and the Coyote Call Trail meet up at the top of a saddle in the upper left of the above map. If you haven't hiked this area yet, get up there, because it is very pleasant and it's open for snow shoeing/cross county skiing in the winter. This area is the "undiscovered" area of Bandelier and the Valles Caldera, but it won't be that way for long I suspect owing to it's beauty.

The above map doesn't show the route we took as going up to the top of Rabbit Mountain. I believe this track is from a trip we took where we skipped going up to the top, but it is anticipated that hikers would go to the top of Rabbit Mountain and enjoy the near 360 degree view. You would follow the ridge to the top rather then staying on the southern slope of Rabbit Mountain as shown in the map above.

Myself passing through the tall grasses on the way down from Rabbit Mountain to Map point Red 3. The grasses were up to my chin in some areas.

The loop continues from the Red 3 on well defined animal trails until it meets up with the Blue existing logging road and a return trip to the Coyote Call access gate.

Potential Issues with opening up this route: VCNP Archeology Clearance is needed. (The Bandelier side has been cleared and completely opened to the public. I have heard recently that the Valles Caldera NP is considering doing some intensive Archeological surveys on this portion of the Valles Caldera NP so that it can be opened up to the public. I hope this is true.)