Jemez Mountain Trail: Bandelier, Valles Caldera and Jemez Springs

Route description

Leave Santa Fe north on US-84/285 and turn west at Pojoaque on NM-502, which climbs onto the Pajarito Plateau to Los Alamos. The town grew around the secret wartime laboratory; the free Bradbury Science Museum tells its story, and the Manhattan Project National Historical Park has a small visitor center downtown. From there NM-502 and NM-4 lead to White Rock and on to Bandelier National Monument.

Parking in Frijoles Canyon is limited and large RVs are best left at the White Rock visitor center; when the canyon lots fill on busy days, a free shuttle runs from an overflow lot near the entrance. In Frijoles Canyon, the Main Loop Trail passes cave rooms carved into soft tuff and climbs ladders to Alcove House. Juniper Campground sits in the pines near the park entrance.

NM-4 then climbs west through ponderosa forest to Valles Caldera National Preserve, a vast grassy crater where elk graze at dawn and dusk. A gravel road leads 3 km from the highway to the visitor center at the old ranch buildings. The highway reaches about 2,700 m, and snow can close it briefly in winter. It then drops through the red cliffs of San Diego Canyon, past Jemez Falls and the travertine arch of Soda Dam.

Just below Soda Dam, Jemez Historic Site preserves the ruins of a 1620s mission church. Jemez Springs is a small village with a public bathhouse and hot springs. NM-4 continues south past the red mesas of Jemez Pueblo, where you can visit the Walatowa visitor center. At San Ysidro, US-550 leads southeast to Bernalillo and I-25, about 90 km from Jemez Springs to Albuquerque.