New Mexico Road Trip - Santa Fe Day 3

Thursday, October 24, 2024

Despite a couple of setbacks, today was one of our best drives of the trip.  Once again, we were up at eight and by 9:30, we were on our way.  The weather was perfect with blue skies and what promised to be a warm day.  We had two scenic drives planned for the day, one short and one long.

Today we are doing two of the scenic drives on our list.  This first is Scenic Byway #8 (the violet route that goes north out of Santa Fe) and the second is Scenic Byway #7 (the violet route in the upper left corner of the map).

Our first drive was the short Scenic Byway #8 called the Santa Fe National Forest Scenic Byway that would take us from Santa Fe to high in the mountains to the Ski Santa Fe ski area.  The start of the drive was just minutes from our apartment, so we quickly left Santa Fe behind and were climbing up into the mountains.  It looked like it was going to be a beautiful drive, but halfway up there was a flashing road sign that said, Road Closed, Turn Around.  The road was closed for construction with no prior warning so there was nothing we could do but turn around and start our second scenic drive of the day, a bit of a disappointment.

Our second drive was Scenic Byway #7 called Valles Grande that would take us from the town of White Rock near Los Alamos to the Jemez Pueblo via state route 4.  We passed through Bandelier National Monument, the Santa Fe National Forest, the Valle Caldera National Preserve and the Jemez National Recreation Area.  There was plenty to do today so we decided we would skip going in Bandelier as we had been there before.  We also decided that since our primary interest was the Jemez Pueblo we would go straight there and stop at other points of interest on the way back, but things didn’t go quite as planned.

Time to get off the main highway and start Scenic Byway #7.

After passing over a 9200-foot pass, it was time for lunch, so we found a place to eat next to the Jemez River called the Battleship Rock Picnic Area named after a distinctive rock formation nearby.  After lunch we continued on following the Jemez
River and as we went back down in elevation, we started to see cottonwood trees along the river in full fall color mode.  It was amazing and the best we’ve seen on the trip so far.

We managed to get behind three gravel trucks as they crawled there way up and over a 9200 foot pass.

Valles Caldera National Preserve, we'll be stopping here on our way back.

Time for lunch at Battleship Rock Picnic Ground.

Battleship Rock in the background.

A nice spot for lunch beside the Jemez River.

After passing through the small town of Jemez Springs, the fall color really got spectacular.

We couldn’t resist stopping and pulled into a parking area near the river.  As we got out of the car, we started talking to a man who lived in the area and had lots of information to give us and stories to tell.  We learned a lot about the area and some things to look for on the drive back.  After talking to him a bit, Val and I took a short walk along the water admiring the fall color and taking many pictures. 

We couldn't resist stopping and viewing the fall color close up.  The man standing behind the pickup truck was a friendly local who gave us some helpful information and had some interesting stories to tell.

From there it was on to the Jemez Pueblo.  Just before we reached the pueblo, we saw a Jemez Recreation Area Visitor’s Center and stopped there to get some information.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get the information we wanted to hear.  Unlike the other pueblos we have visited, they did not welcome visitors, and did not like people even driving through it and photography was strictly prohibited.  It was disappointing, but totally understandable as they have every right to want to maintain their privacy without a bunch of tourists around.

After visiting the visitor's center we learned the Jemez Pueblo didn't want visitors and picture taking wasn't allowed.

We drove by the Pueblo and found it to be unlike any of the others we’ve seen as it was more like a small village.  There may have been more here than met the eye, and we had only what the person at the visitor’s center said.  We had gone as far as we were going today, so since we weren’t going to be visiting the Pueblo we decided to start back. Unfortunately, the start of our return was delayed as we got caught in a very long road construction delay.

We finally got started back passing through the pleasant looking resort town of Jemez Springs.  We made another stop at a river view, but it wasn’t too interesting. 

 

We had notice this turnout on our way to the Jemez Pueblo and decided to stop and see what was there.

The Jemez Soda Dam, a group of 15 hot springs.

Our real interest on our way back was visiting the Valles Caldera National Preserve.  1.25 million years ago a giant volcano exploded, spewing vast quantities of lava and ash and leaving the space below empty causing the ground all around to collapse leaving a giant depression called a caldera.  The caldera here is one of the largest in the world and is 13.7 miles across.  From the road it looks like a giant bowl-shaped valley.  You can’t even see all the way across it as there is a large hill in the middle formed by rising magma.  There is much more to it so follow the link above if you are interested.

Val and I drove down into the caldera to the ranger station and learned quite a bit about what happened from the ranger there.  We drove on deeper into the caldera, but it was getting late in the afternoon, and we had to get going.

Pictures don't do a very good job of showing just how immense this caldera is.

The ranger station.

We started our drive back along this very scenic road, but part way back decided to leave State Highway 4 and take a side road up to Los Alamos as that would cut almost an hour off our drive back.  We were back in Santa Fe just after five, tired but happy.  Despite the disappointments of not being able to make it all the way up to Ski Santa Fe area and not being able to visit the Jemez Pueblo, this was one of our best scenic drives of the trip.

We decided not to go out to dinner tonight and had some snacks for dinner and relaxed for the rest of the evening.  Tomorrow is our last day in Santa Fe and is another free day to do anything we want. 

Scenic Drives Completed: 13 of 35

Scenic Drives Missed: 1

Four more scenic byways completed from our list.