Valles Caldera National Preserve — Attraction in Four Corners States

Nature is beautiful but a few of the park rangers are ugly. This Sunday we went to the Valles Caldera national preserve and experienced an unpleasant female park ranger when we checked in and she was rude or short with the few people who were checking in and I saw her grunt something to a European visitor who had difficulty speaking English. I assisted him and we paid the $20.00 to go into the back country. A male park ranger was on duty on the porch and he was very pleasant as we should expect. The drive through the park was beautiful but the map provided and signage and trail markers throughout the park was very bad. Towards the end of the long road it is very badly maintained and very rutted even though we asked in advance how the roads were she said they were like the entry drive but did not warn us about the conditions we would experience. We were able to deal with the poor road conditions and made it back without getting stuck. We only saw about 15-20 cars coming and going and 3 motorcycles during our time. When we arrived back at the quard house and visitors center we stopped to take down the chain to allow the motorcycles to pass. There was a large truck and horse trailer coming down the hill from the overflow parking area into the acute angle intersection so the motorcycles cut across the dirt area into the parking area to check out as is required. I saw a red headed female park ranger run down from the porch and I at first thought she was being nice to come out to help them check out but I heard her yell at them for cutting across into the parking area instead of going into the difficult intersection with the horse trailer. She then approached me and also told me that we should not have cut across the dirt area and that we were lucky that law enforcement was not there. I asked her to show me the sign which says not to cut across the area and she barked back that they were working on it and Maybe that they should put up some barriers. The 30-50 foot area is not marked in any way and it was more of a road then a lot of what we had just driven along. Her actions created another unpleasant experience to what should have been a nice afternoon at Valles Caldera and I don't like to think how the foreign tourists feel. I have heard of unpleasant park rangers but this is the first time I have experiences two in one day. Maybe they are not happy with their jobs and dealing with park visitors and they should seek another profession. Thanks for ruining an otherwise...

This place is amazing. Wildlife lovers will be in heaven, but there are only 58 car passes a day, so signup early and be on time. It fills up at opening. The drive on NM Highway 4 from Los Alamos is awe-inspiring. Sheer cliffs seem to come out of the ground in the ubiquitous NM red and orange sandstone ending in flat-topped mesas dotted with trees at the tops. There are more greenery and trees that crowd the twisty road, including charred stumps from a forest fire. At the midpoint of the drive the ground falls away into a huge canyon on your left. You can see for miles in the direction of the canyon. After a bit more twiaty driving, you see the Grand Valle on the right from above. This is a wide open field that must stretch 10 miles across. Big enough that you can see the shadow of entire clouds on the carpet of grass. I had to get a very long panoramic shot to get it all, but I cannot find the picture to post. There are hundreds of prairie dogs chirping their alarm call and dart across the road as you drive down the dirt trail that bisects the huge Grand Valle. Go a little slower than the 30 posted to avoid killing them. There was one squashed on the road that made me sad. There are random mountains and hills that form the entry into the Valle Caldera proper and higher mountians in the background. This place is high. 9,300 at the entry gate and 11,000 at the tallest peak. If you want to hike or even walk, you will need some good conditioning if you are used to sea level. I trained at 4300 ft. for weeks before coming to NM and it was still challenging. Bring plenty of water and sunscreen. The sun will burn fair-skinned people in minutes at this elevation. I could not secure a day pass, so I chatted with a Ranger named "Doc." He had great info, entertaining stories, and directed me to the entry gate. There are ground squirrels, Ravens, and pine siskin birds that are barely afraid of you and you can get quite close if you have some food. I was told not to feed them, but they try anyway. There is a herd of elk that come out of the forest at around 4pm. Next time I am in NM, I will secure a day pass and update my review, but it was...

Get here early if you want to go into the actual caldera. Right now there are Backcountry permits only allowed for cars to drive through the center of the preserve and if you get there too late like we did, you won't get one.

The preserve is new, although it seems like it was designated in 2009, so not actually that new. You can get in for free though since they haven't gotten anything really set up. The two rangers who were there didn't really seem to know too much about the area, and when we asked what we could see they suggested going to Los Alamos instead of driving around the caldera! Very odd. There are no maps either, since they're still "on order." How a place can be so behind is unfathomable. If it was set up in 2009, that's a bit ridiculous. Even if it was opened just a year or two ago, you'd think they'd have it together more, and at least should be able to tell us where to stop and what to see in the park.

We did our own driving and walking from various pulloffs, and that was actually nice. Very pretty with streams running alongside paths, some cool rock formations and pretty Flora. There were some people rock climbing as well. Very pretty. I'll come back and explore more, hopefully next time in the center of...