Valles Caldera National Preserve

A beautiful volcanic landscape perched atop the mountains. We visited briefly in mid July, it was not too hot given the high altitude, and the early afternoon storms offer relief. I can recommend the hidden valley trail, the turn off for which is on the gravel road before the visitor's center. We saw prairie dogs, coyotes, and many lovely wildflowers.

We happened on this Preserve 3 to 4 years ago... and have visited when we are in the Santa Fe area... It has become a favorite place... today, we drove the back area... so beautiful... one of those places you can visit over and over... and never tire of...

This is a beautiful place, it is viewable by pull offs on the side of the road. Luckily, fees were being waived the day that we visited. There is a gift shop and we picked up some cool magnets and a t-shirt, but the back country access must be scheduled through recreation.gov we had coordinated the back country pass in advance and did visit the back country and found the roads to be fairly rough , all gravel and not much to see that couldn’t be seen from the road. I left wishing I’d planned my visit for dawn or dusk so that I could have watched for elk coming out to graze in the valley.

The park is awesome! Main complaint is nothing indicated gates would lock and be unmanned at 5pm. We luckily we're able to talk to a construction crew to call a park ranger being that we had no cell reception to let us out... seems like a very odd process for a National Parks operated space. The elk, park, Rangers & many areas are awesome.

Nature Valley Trail hike is stunning. Park off the gravel road near the movie-set cabin. About 3.5 mile RT. Beautiful back country territory. Need to be agile enough to climb over fallen trees and navigate a creek crossing, but otherwise pretty easy. Are we really in the high desert ???? Highly recommend.