Saw these on the Caldera Website and thought that someone here might be interested or know someone who would be interested.

http://www.vallescaldera.gov/about/employment/docs/trust_14-VCT-13RangeAid.pdf

http://www.vallescaldera.gov/about/employment/docs/trust_14-VCT-14ForestryTechSecurity.pdf

Beautiful country, my wife would shoot me.

Same here, plus, I am starting a new job soon.

Beautiful country.

Ursus, I think I can convince my wife to eventually move to WV (obviously TN).

U?

We've talked about WV some. Her leaving Vermont due to not liking snow and cold is not helping the WV cause. That, and I know a couple biologists out of WV and eastern Kentucky, and they are the rich guys in town. I make more than they do. That is a tough sell too.

But I do watch stuff out of that area, parts of NM, and a few other areas. I get hit up by O&G periodically, but their usual angle doesn't sit well with me.

Love the Caldera area, anyone in the Santa Fe and Albuquerque areas should put it on their itinerary, along with Jemez falls, Gilman tunnels, Los Alamos museums, Bandelier, etc.

The part time job sounds like cowboy work in a beautiful place. Some college kid should go for it.

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/acdub9]Valles Caldera looking NE by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/acdtg7]Valles Caldera, elk grazing by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/6LHyWh]IMG_9124 by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

[This message has been edited by CanyonAg77 (edited 4/15/2014 9:36p).]

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/6LHBNJ]IMG_9146 by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/6LHDKE]Valles Caldera by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/6LDv5c]IMG_9167 by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr



[This message has been edited by CanyonAg77 (edited 4/15/2014 9:41p).]

If I was still looking this would be right up my alley.

quote:

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New Mexico - It's like a whole other country....

.....a country full of freaks, weirdos, aging hippies, hipsters, new agers, back to nature, sexually confused, anti-government, enviro-nuts, made-up religions, etc. etc. etc.

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This is an accurate assessment.

Man, those are awesome pictures Canyon. I've never been through that country - will need to make some time if it really is that pretty there.

schmellba99-

Everyone should see the Caldera at least once. The scale of the thing has to be seen to be believed.

Look closely at the second photo. Those are elk grazing about 5 miles from the camera, and it's another 5 miles to the mountains in the background. The photo is taken from the south end of the caldera, and the north edge is out of sight to the north....beyond the last set of mountains in the photo.

The third is the Gilman tunnels, a former narrow gauge rail line, now a highway, SW of Jemez Springs.

The stream is outside the cladera proper, but it's just west toward Jemez, and a really pretty place to hike.

My wife's sister lives in ABQ, may have to make a road trip that way when the girls get a bit older and swing through there. It really is beautiful country.

Canyon, you are not helping with my annual lack on mountains depression....That said, more please.

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/6LHxto]Jemez Springs area after thunderstorm by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/6LDopv]Rainbow near San Yisidro Pueblo by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/6LHxSN]On drive to Gilman tunnels by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/6LDoKx]Sunset by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/6LHysC]IMG_9121 by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/6LDpgi]road to Gilman tunnels by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

Can do more later this evening if people aren't tired of them....



[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/6LHAod]IMG_9137 by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/6LDreP]IMG_9138 by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/6LDrND]IMG_9141 by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

How can anyone with a brain get tired of those beautiful pictures??
Please CA77 continue!!

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/6LHBkG]IMG_9143 by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/6LHC4s]IMG_9148 by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/6LHCxf]west of Valles Caldera by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/6LDuwz]IMG_9160 by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr


[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/6LHE2E]IMG_9162 by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/6LDuQv]IMG_9164 by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

[This message has been edited by CanyonAg77 (edited 4/15/2014 9:28p).]

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/6LHEYE]IMG_9173 by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/acds2h]Untitled by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr


[This message has been edited by CanyonAg77 (edited 4/15/2014 9:34p).]

My father and I both consulted for previous surface owners, prior to the Dunnigan sale to the govt. I did some work for a subsurface owner, too. Amazing geothermal resource there. I spent a month in the Kiva when I was 14. Amazing place. High point for me was one of the owners had a guest....a 1967 Playboy playmate. I know...rule #1, but I was 14 and my brownie camera was broke.

BTW, back then, it was called De Baca Ranch

Yucc, quite jealous. Amazing country. They talk about the owner back then on some of the tours. I believe he was the one who was trying to raise quarter horses for the track, built an incredible hunting lodge...maybe married a stewardness (back before they were flight attendants)?

Bonus, some photos of the burn area between the Caldera and Los Alamos, taken August 2011.

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/acauSM]Untitled by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/acdnRo]Burn area in Valles Caldera by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/acdojb]Fire line in V. Caldera by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

The ragged line in the photo above was the bulldozed fire line between the burn area on the right and the unburned on the left.

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/acdprY]Untitled by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

Across the state highway south of the Cladera

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/acayXX]Untitled by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

Sediment in a stream, downsteam of burn. Just west of Caldera

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/acazCM]erosion and sediment will be a problem by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

Yeah, the hunting lodge was the Kiva....this incredible round accommodation with guest rooms around the outside and a huge center 'grand room' (musta been 100' across) with a massive elk shoulder mount over a 10' wide fireplace. Honestly, the place looked like something out of a James Bond film. The owner was Pat Dunigan..a true character and legendary individual that was in a protracted legal battle with the US govt over the control of his land (he had 2 other partners in the ownership of the Baca Ranch). Prior to his ownership, the ranch had been the victim of clear cutting by the logging industry and Pat made some major changes. I remember that he was trying to work with some local Native Americans because of certain holy grounds located within the ranch boundaries and their access to said areas.

I spent one day on horseback just riding a couple of the canyons and it was unforgettable. Valle Grande was about 5 miles by 8 miles and an optical illusion as to how big it was for me. Scattered clouds on an otherwise sunny day caused the most amazing shadows to flow across the bottom of the caldera and watching the wind bend the tall grasses in that lighting was the stuff of dreams for a kid sitting out there on horseback.

Pat also had over 100,000 head of cattle (at least that is the way I remember it, so take this with a grain of salt) on the place at one point and told us about the roundups that often left some wild cattle that ended up living off the grid from the rest.

Here is some info on the ranch I took off the internet:

http://www.livestockweekly.com/papers/99/12/02/whlbaca.asp

Anyway, I remember going up to one area where the first of 2 or 3 steam 'test' wells had been drilled. I was given a pair of ear protectors and told I could open the well to atmosphere. It had about a 6" gate valve on top of it and I slowly opened the wheel on the gate valve to the roar of the steam blowing over 200' into the air. It was their own private geyser and the reason my father was there: He was working with Pat to estimate the quality and reserves of the steam potential for power generation. Although geothermal energy is pretty green, environmentalists prevented any commercial exploitation of the potential leaving the subsurface rights owners without compensation because those rights were not addressed as to title in the sale of the land to the govt. Eventually, a small settlement was made with the subsurface owners and the issue was closed. My involvement, as an extension of my father's earlier work, help that owner in his action with the govt to either allow him to exploit the potential or to be justly compensated. IMO, he got neither, but at least his position was recognized legally and he recovered some of the money he spent in what he believed was a clean form of energy that was needed back in the Carter years.

Small world, isn't it?

[This message has been edited by Yuccadoo (edited 4/16/2014 4:32a).]

OH, one last thing. When my daughter was young, we took her over to the ranch entry to show her the place. We didn't have any access but it was special for her, especially the big snowball fight we had there, and I got to tell her the stories of my family vacation there and some of what her grandfather was doing. He had also worked on Unocal's Geysers geothermal project in California and in New Zealand in the late 60's for 9 months on their geothermal reservoirs in Wairakei. More on that here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power_in_New_Zealand



[This message has been edited by Yuccadoo (edited 4/16/2014 4:45a).]

Just got back from the Jemez Springs area and the Caldera. On the tour this time, they let us go into the "Kiva". It and the Dunigan family cabin are for rent. The cabin for $500 a night, the Kiva for $1000 a night. If you had a large group, it would be a bargin, especially with the million dollar views.

Back door of the kiva/lodge

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/oFJw9F]026 by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

View from the back of the Kiva toward the valley.

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/oFJtW4]027 by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

Fireplace

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/oXX5Yx]028 by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

Another view of kiva

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/oFJr2X]029 by CHS Girls Soccer, on Flickr

We all stayed in the lodges and the kiva over a coupla weeks each. Unforgetable views and the weather was awesome when we were there. The place even smelled amazing!

Thanks for the pictures....brings back so many great memories! I guess it seemed bigger when I was 14 than it really was. I'd never seen anything like it growing up in BCS! The scale of the valley is mind blowing.

[This message has been edited by Yuccadoo (edited 8/29/2014 9:12p).]

I was hoping you'd see them. Sorry the inside shots were so bad, hand-held, natural light. I should have adjusted the camera but they were hurrying us along. I'm trying to recall, seems like the kiva had 8 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms, a bar area and a commercial-sized kitchen. The cabin for rent is the log cabin to the east of the kiva. Has a porch looking over the valley. There's also an A-frame that they won't rent, as it is not safety (ladder to loft) or ADA compliant.

Saw some elk cows and calves this trip, no bulls. They were hiding in the trees somewhere.

We cooked many a fine string of trout in that kitchen while we were there. At one point, I seem to recall that Pat said they ran over 100,000 cattle on the ranch, and lost as many as a 1000 to 'going rogue' but I could be mistaken. Mr. Dunigan was quite a character and he and my dad would get into very candid conversations about the oil business over a late night drink. Back in that day, there were three principal owners of the ranch, and they had completely different personalities and lifestyles. One of them was a very wealthy Baptist that didn't like alcohol use and expected prim and proper behavior and then there was the wild Pat Dunigan on the complete opposite side of the spectrum. Truth is, the ranch was big enough for them to live there and hardly ever see each other. I happened to be tuning through some TV channels and crossed a recent Johnny Depp movie 'The Lone Ranger' and sure enough, there they were in Valles Caldera in the shot. Thought that was cool. I checked on Wiki and yep...that was the film site. Lots of interesting info here if anyone is interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valles_Caldera

If you ever have a chance to visit this place, it is magical in its serenity and utter scale of beauty and well worth making the stop. There exist some sacred areas to American Indians within the park.

Well, the grand experiment is over. Valles Caldera is headed to the tender ministrations of the National Park Service. Who, BTW, don't have the budget to run the place. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Valles changing to NP

quote:

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.
The management experiment at Valles Caldera National Preserve is coming to an end as the National Park Service prepares to take over the 140-square-mile property in northern New Mexico.The transition is among dozens of public land measures squeezed into the half-trillion-dollar defense bill signed by President Barack Obama on Friday, but details about how things will change at the preserve remain unclear.

The Park Service is taking on Valles Caldera and numerous other properties at a time when the agency is struggling with more than $11 billion in deferred maintenance at existing parks and monuments and is looking to boost entrance fees at parks across the nation to generate more revenue in advance of the agency's centennial.

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I guess that is the end to the elk hunting out there.