One of the most beautiful and unique experiences in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico are the high grasslands in the mountains surrounding the Valles Caldera and in the Valles Caldera National Preserve. There are old grasslands that have been established for centuries and they offer wonderful, open, high altitude hiking and skiing, especially Canada Bonito near Pajarito Mountain.
The “montane grasslands” at the top of the major Jemez peaks and high valleys are unusual native grasslands in remarkable good condition and full of wildflowers and birds. Hiking into these wide open places ringed with high altitude forest is one of the best experiences available in our region. Canada Bonito is probably the easiest grassland to reach with access to the Valles Caldera National Preserve.
Canada Bonito lies on the north side of Camp May Mountain near the Pajarito Mountain Ski Area. You can find the trailhead across the road from a metal shed before the most western of the Pajarito chairlifts. The cross country ski trails across from Pajarito Mountain lead directly to Canada Bonito and the trail is gentle with only a gradual climb. You go through forest for about a mile and then you’ll see the large meadow appearing to the north and west.
This area was heavily burned by the Cerro Grande Fire in May 2000 but is undergoing a remarkable recovery from the fire. As you walk toward the meadow you’ll see that the aspen trees are already 20 feet tall and white fir and Douglas fir are thriving along with some New Mexico locust. Old Douglas fir trees stand dead around you but many younger trees thrive.
Canada Bonito is a montane grassland which is a high, wet meadow. As you come into the meadow you’ll see extensive aspen forests up to the right (north) where the older trees were killed by the fire but now tens of thousands of younger aspen are growing up among the dead trees. Aspen grows from root masses and hundreds or thousands of trees can grow from the same mass of roots that can cover large areas. Here the fire stimulated the trees and if you look at the older aspen groves to the west you’ll see many new trees growing out from the older aspen groves. In those places the fire intensity was low enough that the standing trees survived but the passage of fire stimulated new tree growth around the older groves.
The grasslands are fantastic and full of life. This meadow is a “Research Natural Area” under US Forest Service management. Research natural areas are places with important ecological characteristics that are worthy of protection and study. The US Forest Service manages 571 RNAs in the US today.
Many grasslands in the Jemez Mountains have been grazed heavily by livestock, spreading weeds and damaging the populations of wildflowers (forbes) and native grasses with continuous pounding by cattle. This meadow has not been grazed since sheep were last turned loose here in 1943. Thus it has had time to recover and with recent burning, it is healthier and more diverse than in generations.
Meadows like this one are maintained by fire which would naturally burn through every decade or less. Fire keeps conifers like pines and firs from taking root among the grasses when fire happens frequently enough. Here older trees growing among the grass show how fire suppression happened for decades as these trees never would have survived under a natural fire regime. You can see that the lower limbs of the bigger trees scattered in the meadow have been burned by fire but these trees are large enough to survive the relatively cool grass fires that swept through in 2000 and probably again in 2011.
Ecologists understand that fire is key to nurturing these grasslands. In 2000 the National Park Service was burning a similar grassland on the top of Cerro Grande to kill trees invading the meadows when their prescribed fire got out of control because of understaffing and other problems (see the book “Inferno by Committee” for a full analysis of the Cerro Grande Fire). Scientists at nearby Valles Caldera National Preserve have found that these grasslands are highly resistant to fire and that the species present thrive with frequent burning.
As you walk through the meadow you can see the remains of an old road that angles up toward the large aspen grove in the middle of the western part of the meadow. This is the old Pipeline Road that starts at the ski area and makes an arch over to the center of Los Alamos at Pueblo Canyon. This road used to be open to public driving and was closed through this meadow because some people ripped up the meadows with their jeeps or motorbikes.
Today the Guaje Canyon Trail which you are walking on continues along the rim of the mountains all the way to Guaje Canyon to the north. Much of this land was severely burned by both the Cerro Grande and the Las Conchas fires and the old growth forests of the past are gone. But it continues to be an interesting place to walk as we see the land recover and evolve.
One you have walked up the meadow toward the rim of the caldera, you’ll come across some old fences. This is the boundary between the US Forest Service land and the Valles Caldera National Preserve which encompasses 89,000 acres of land on the rims and bottom of the Valles beyond. This is the collapsed center of an old volcano that produced massive eruptions ending around 1.1 million years ago. The gentle landscape we see today belies the extreme violence of this volcano.
You can walk to the rim of the caldera and look down into the vast grasslands and forests below. This area is managed by the National Park Service and is being restored from decades of damage from livestock grazing that happened around the turn of the century and into the 1930s. It was heavily overgrazed by sheep and cattle until the federal government purchased the land in 2000. The NPS allows only minimal grazing in limited areas.
At the rim you are looking into the Valle Toledo, one of the chambers of the caldera. You can walk down into the Valles if you like here as the slope is gentle. The area is recovering from fire but it is public land and you are completely welcome to walk all you want in any direction. If you want to camp, return to the US Forest Service land behind you.
These grasslands are rich with life. Botanists at the Valles Caldera National Preserve found 44 grass species and 101 species of wildflowers (forbes). The mariposa lily is probably the most spectacular flower here and in wet years there are many species of mushrooms in the edge of the woods and among the aspens.
These meadows are especially good for sleeping in the shade in the afternoon and camping in late in the summer. Evenings and mornings the light is especially beautiful. Ski in here in the winter. Spend as much of your life as you can in these meadows.
