Jemez Springs June 23

Sara and I had to spend another Saturday in Albuquerque so we decided to make a weekend of it and camp up on the cool, forested slopes of the Valles Caldera north of Albuquerque. We quickly found out that over half of the places we hoped to visit were closed due to extreme fire danger and that on Monday the entire forest would be closed until further notice. We pulled into one of the few campgrounds actually open and pitched out tent as the bright moon cast long, dark shadows across the forest. 

Once we figured out what was actually open, we started the day off with a hike to McCauley hot springs. We followed the switchbacked trail up away from the small stream and past large boulders of flow-banded obsidian which had obviously fallen from further up the hillside. Although early, it was already starting to get warm and sweaty. Somewhat abruptly we reached a open hillsided meadow between the trees and the source of the hot springs. Although calling them "hot" is being rather generous, the temperature was refreshing given the heat and the surroundings, fantastic. There were at least four different pools to soak in, the first and third being the best. Because the temperature was not overwhelmingly hot there was a surprising amount of life at the hot spring- small fish that tickled, little frogs, even wild orchids at the water's edge. We enjoyed having the whole place to ourselves. The place was serene.

We took a detour to look for nearby camping spots, then regained the trail and hiked back. We stopped quickly at the considerably more popular Spence Hot Springs, and then carried on to Soda Dam (both overrated I thought). Soda Dam is a 6m high travertine dam that formerly spanned the whole valley and presumably created a large lake upstream. The stream has since found a way through the deposit. Between the road cutting right through the dam, the large numbers of people and the heavily trampled vegetation, it is obvious the place has lost much of the charm it once had. We then drove through Jemez Springs and turned off on the backroad headed for Gilman Tunnels, which cut through ancient (>1 billion yr old) granite. Here we stopped for a refreshing swim in the cool stream before carrying on. We drove out of the granite and up into tuff of the caldera, which had some nicely textured boulders and slickrock. Once back on the paved road we found out the back road we were planning on taking past Tent Rocks was a no go, and drove back through Jemez Springs for home.