The highlight of this spectacular day was our hike along the Jemez River, which was actually a creek, or a babbling brook.

Jemez Mountains, Jemez Springs, Jemez River, Jemez Red Cliffs, Jemez Mountains Trail Scenic Byway..... What a spectacular hidden gem. Even the 2011, 156,000 acre wild fire, the largest in New Mexico’s history, couldn’t extinguish the beauty of these majestic mountains.

From Santa Fe to Los Alamos, the mountains are barren bright orange, red, and tan rocky monsters. Los Alamos is the demarcation line between desert and alpine. This time going from east to west, we had to again submit to a security checkpoint. The military research facility employs 15,000 people along with their families. The city of Los Alamos is very vibrant and modern. It is really quite pretty.

Past Los Alamos lies the Jemez Mountains. The fire did nip at the research area, which I bet caused some consternation. I have no doubt that the fire response was robust as that seems to be as far as it went, at least eastwardly. Its westward march traveled about 25 miles, but in a very spotty fashion. Many huge patches of green were untouched. Of course, the fire, as huge as it was, only marred a small section of the entire mountain range.

The Valles Caldera National Preserve. Out of nowhere, this strange grass valley popped up. Around this valley is a 13 mile wide caldera. I believe there is still some activity going on, like hot springs in the area.

One such green patch in the middle of the fire zone, is the Las Conchas Trail that follows the East Fork of the Jemez River. This trail is one of the most beautiful trails that we have ever tread upon. With a combination of tall pines, green grass, budding deciduous trees, a babbling brook, and crazy rock formations, we couldn’t stop walking, for around each bend was another delightful scene.

There was a small group of rock climbers at the trailhead. This guy got himself stuck. He couldn’t go any further and was trying to figure out how to climb back down.

The Byway is supposed to be a circle loop. When highway 4 fed into highway 126, we decided to go north toward the tiny town of Cuba. From there we were to head south on highway 550, eventually meeting back up with highway 4 to complete the loop. Much to our surprise, 126 just ended. The rest of the road was a severely rutted dirt path up to Cuba - a good 25 miles worth of bouncing. This reminded us of a similar situation in Michigan’s upper peninsula where a perfectly good road suddenly turned into a mess. We didn’t bite and turned around to head south towards San Ysidro.

This stretch of of highway 126 wound its way along a gorgeous alpine canyon that gave way to the bright red cliffs around Jemez Pueblo. I have never seen such red mountains anywhere. They were mesmerizing. It was difficult to drive as I just wanted to stare, however the severe hairpin turns demanded my attention.

Back in Santa Fe, we stopped off at the De Vargas Mall to take advantage of the 5G. We have no reception at our campsite and I needed to figure out where to go next.

Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured.

Dave and Wanda

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