Access:  The junction of State Road 4 and FR 268, the del Norte Canyon Road, is on State Road 4 just east of the entrance road to the Valles Caldera National Preserve.  It is marked by a little wooden sign.  It is a rocky little dirt road, especially after a series of rains, but not steep.  The trailhead is at the pass, where there is parking for two or three vehicles.
The junction of State Road 4 and the Peralta Road, FR280, is farther west on State Road 4 past the entrance to the VCNP.  A road sign points to the entrance.  It is a better dirt road because it is the access road for microwave towers on Peralta Ridge.  Fallen trees occasionally block both roads; frequent users carry saws.  Both roads have gates.  The SFNF closes the roads for resource protection (the roads themselves) in snowy winters.

Valles Caldera South Rim
Paso del Norte to Peralta Pass
Forest Road 268 to Forest Road 280

Introduction.  Congress designated this part of the southern Jemez Mountains a National Recreation Area.  The Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF) owns the south rim of the Valles Caldera from Paso del Norte to Battleship Rock.  It manages the area for multiple use: grazing, logging, hunting, motorized trail use, cross country skiing, and hiking are all permitted uses.  This section describes the rim from Paso del Norte to the Peralta Road. A single-track motorcycle trail traverses the entire rim here.  Logging roads run parallel to the trail at the west end.  Even so, the rim, for the most part, is lightly used and this is an enjoyable walk.  Occasional grassy meadows open up good views of the southern slopes of the Jemez Mountains.  There are only glimpses along this rim into the caldera itself due to the dense forest.

Both del Norte Road—Forest Road 268—and the Peralta Road—Forest Road 280—are dirt roads marginally passable to passenger cars during good weather; a high-clearance vehicle is better.  The roads are gated and closed in winter.  The Peralta Road has a permanently closed gate beyond Peralta Pass.

Description: The south rim of the Valles Caldera is a mosaic of volcanic flows that span a large fraction of the lifetime of the Jemez Volcanic Pile.  This section traverses the Paliza Formation that contains the oldest rocks of the entire rim.  Its pasty, hard, andesitic and basaltic flows form small, lumpy hillocks and narrow ridges along the rim.
Between Paso del Norte and Peralta Canyon, the rim is a narrow, twisting, heavily wooded ridge of small knolls.  A trail, varying as much as 200 feet in elevation, progresses along the rim.  Motorcyclers use the trail; on steep sections it can become eroded but still usable by hikers.  The bikers keep the trail clean and well-maintained.

The trail is a pleasant path through the forest, very well maintained.

The forest south of the rim was logged long ago, but logging roads never ran along the rim itself.  Loggers cut skid roads up from the south to harvest a few large trees.  Stumps along the route show how large the trees there had been.  These logging roads are now overgrown with grasses and hardly noticeable.

Rotting stumps show that the logging happened long ago.

Openings in the forest provide excellent views of the southern Jemez Mountains, including the upper reaches of Medio Dia and Bland canyons, Bearhead Ridge, and Aspen and Bearhead peaks.  Views into the Valle Grande on the northeast are limited by heavy forest.  Rabbit Mountain just east of Paso del Norte is occasionally visible.

View to the southeast of the San Miguel Mountains and Cerro Picacho.

The ridge broadens as it approaches Peralta Canyon.  Aspens grow on the little knolls before the ridge widens to a grassy meadow.  Here, a logging road contours around the southern part of the rim.  (We didn’t follow it.)  An abandoned road, now a trail, heads down a little drainage to Forest Road 280 near its junction with State Road 4.  From the meadow, the motorcycle trail leaves the rim to contour through the forest along the north slope.  It is a pleasant trail through a dense conifer forest with occasional aspens and a few open places where grasses and wildflowers grow.

We called this opening Emerald Meadow because it was a brilliant green.

There is a maze of logging roads in this area; one could easily become disoriented. (We ALWAYS GPS our parking place.)  The trail meets a road that runs along the headwall of Peralta Canyon, continuing west to Peralta Pass and Forest Road 280, the Peralta Road that comes up from State Road 4.  The motorcycle trail contours and switches around on the north side of the rim down to Peralta Pass.  The trail is the most pleasant.

  
The trail contours the little knolls along the rim.         A pocket view of the Valle Grande.

Dorothy Hoard   Autumn 2006