by Matthew Jaffe, Sunset senior writer
Ask people in New Mexico what their favorite time of year is, and they’ll tell you autumn. The weather is nearly perfect, the summer crowds are gone, and the chiles are roasting.
It’s a busy time with the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, the Taos Fall Arts Festival and artists studio tours all happening in the coming weeks. But if you’re in New Mexico for any of these fall events, don’t forget to get out and explore the state’s natural side.
It’s aspen time above Taos and Santa Fe and one of New Mexico’s top outdoors destinations is also one of its least known and most beautiful: Valles Caldera National Preserve.
If 89,000 acres of protected land can be considered a secret, then this is it.
Located in the Jemez Mountains just outside Los Alamos and within an hour or so of Santa Fe, the preserve sits inside the collapsed 14-mile diameter crater of a supervolcano that erupted more than a million years ago. For 150 years the property was a ranch; log cabins and a hunting lodge stand as reminders of the preserve's earlier days. Some cattle ranching continues here but it's managed as part of the preserve's mission to protect the biological health of the land.
What’s striking about the preserve is its scale. You look across vast meadows cut by creeks (the flyfishing for brown and rainbow trout here is outstanding). Ponderosa pines, some 500 years old, cloak the preserve’s peaks, with the yellow and orange of aspens marbling the hillsides. Nor are the aspens the only autumnal attraction. The preserve is home to New Mexico’s largest elk herd, and fall is rutting season and a great time to hear the big bulls bugling.
Trails and some preserve areas are open to the public without reservations but to really get inside, take a tour or call ahead to arrange access into the backcountry for hiking and mountain biking. We've all heard references to "last best places," right? Well, Valles Caldera is definitely one of them. It will open the door to a side of New Mexico that most visitors never see.
