There is an absolutely spectacular drive near Santa Fe that can match the beautiful Highway 12 loop in Colorado and today we took that drive. From a route standpoint, from our RV park near Santa Fe, this drive follows I-25 south to US-550 northbound to NM-4 east to NM-502 to US-285 back to Santa Fe.
The first 25 miles or so are through sagebrush scrub to Santa Ana pueblo but as soon as we turned north on 550 the road started to climb and the vegetation changed with it. We emerged from the sage scrub and passed initially into mixed juniper, hardwood and pine forest. Once we reached San Ysidro we turned east on NM-4 and the road continued climbing. Soon we arrived in the Jemez Valley which is absolutely gorgeous with magnificent canyon walls, a substantial stream on the valley floor and hardwood and fruit trees in colorful bloom. In Jemez Springs, we came across an old ruin from a church structure built in 1621. Maybe due to the arid climate here, the ruin is in great shape, considering its age and the fact the building blocks are made of mud. The ruins are extensive with tower structures still extending about 30′ into the air.
Above Jemez Springs, Peggy and I found a federal picnic ground at a place called Battleship Rock where we pulled off for lunch. There is a creek running below an enormous bare rock pinnacle here and the picnic ground was beautiful. There were lots of birds.
From Jemez Springs, the upward slope of the road increases through alpine pine forest as it approaches the Valles Caldera, an enormous ancient volcano that collapsed into itself leaving a circular plain surrounded by mountains. The elevation is over 8000′ at the caldera floor and hiking here is a bit wheezy. The scenery is amazing and the air, what there is of it, is absolutely clear. Snow covered ridges surround the caldera. At one of our roadside stops, I observed the activities of a tiny black vole who emerged from beneath a patch of snow and scurried around the surface of the snow before disappearing into the brush nearby. He was a cute little tiny guy.
We headed down a poorly-graded 2 mile dirt road to the visitor center of Valles Caldera National Preserve and went in for a sniff. There were numerous Rangers inside the visitor center firmly explaining how smart they were but unable to explain why the access road was so cratered. Regardless of the Rangers’ I.Q., the terrain in the caldera is unique and beautiful and worth the long drive to get here.
We continued uphill on the road until passing over the east edge of the caldera at around 9200′ and soon passed the boundary into Bandelier National Monument. We visited Bandelier last weekend but had not driven through the scenically stunning upper sections above the turnoff to the radiation capital of Los Alamos and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. From Bandelier, we drove down to NM-502 and US-285 back to Santa Fe. Along the way we spotted a large coyote who was hunting for tasty critters in the forest alongside the road. He was impressive.
Today’s drive was a long one. It took us more than six hours but we pulled off the road many times for ogling purposes. The total mileage must exceed 150 but almost every bit is amazingly beautiful and I cannot adequately express how gorgeous the terrain is in this part of the country. If we stay in Santa Fe past the time required to fix our truck, I would love to take our uncomfortable rental car around the loop another time.
We took some pix along the way and you can see some of them if you click here