Efforts underway to make Valles Caldera 'one of the highest visited national park sites' in U.S.

May 19—VALLES CALDERA NATIONAL PRESERVE — Jorge Silva-Bañuelos fell in love the moment he turned the corner on N.M. 4 and first laid eyes on the wide expanse of this nearly 89,000-acre jewel of Northern New Mexico.

The breathtaking experience, almost two decades ago, felt like he was seeing another country — if not another planet.

"Having grown up in New Mexico my entire life, this was just such a unique landscape that it really captured me," said Silva-Bañuelos, now superintendent of the preserve.

"What then kind of enriched the scenic beauty here was really understanding and appreciating the deep cultural and human history of this place," he said. "This has been drawing people for, you know, 11,000 years or more, and so I think there's some type of gravitational pull to this place."

But even the force of gravity was no match for the barbed wire fence that kept most people out of what was privately owned property for more than a century, until the federal government purchased the land and established it as a preserve in 2000.

Even then, public access was limited.

Silva-Bañuelos, however, has grand plans for this grand place — with a focus on making the Valles Caldera more accessible to the public, a dramatic shift in the evolution of an expansive piece of land that was once strictly off limits.

"One of our main goals not only is to preserve and protect and restore this landscape, but it's really to share it with others," he said Thursday at the start of a daylong press tour of the 14-mile-wide volcanic caldera.

Increasing public access and recreation will not only raise awareness about the Valles Caldera but serve as an economic driver for the region, he said.

"It is my belief, my sincere belief, that given its location and proximity to both Santa Fe and Albuquerque, we will become one of the highest visited national park sites once we have gotten our infrastructure in place and have finalized some of our long-term planning," he said.

Plans for the preserve include rerouting and paving the entrance road, building a visitor center closer to N.M. 4 and two new "temporary" parking lots in what is known as the Cabin District about four miles from the entrance gate, as well as improving other roadways, burying electric utility lines and drilling a groundwater well.

The preserve will continue to make ecological restoration investments, many of which are visible on the ground. Over the last 10 years, Silva-Bañuelos said the preserve has invested some $20 million on various forest and wetland restoration projects, from thinning overgrown forests to building fenced enclosures to protect willows. In the future, the preserve wants to recontour some of the old logging roads, eliminating those "scars" from the landscape, as well as reintroducing wildlife, he said.

"Beavers were extirpated from the landscape; this year, we are planning to reintroduce beavers as part of our wetland restoration program," he said. "Last year, we had a visit from a Mexican wolf named Asha, and she hung out here for a very long time, and so we're looking at what are ways that we can continue to improve the habitat here so that when other Mexican wolves start coming up from the south and potentially Northern gray wolves come from the north from Colorado that this is a landscape that can be a healthy one for them to survive and start to reproduce within this landscape."

Lancing Adams, acting secretary of the New Mexico Tourism Department, was among a handful of government employees who participated in the press tour, which included a sometimes slippery and muddy drive into some of the far reaches of the preserve.

Adams said his department is excited to "work collaboratively" with the National Park Service as it moves forward on its vision to make the Valles Caldera a model for sustainability, restoration and recreation.

"That destination is something so special and awe-inspiring," he said. "I mean, you're basically standing on a dormant volcano, a dormant caldera. When you talk about unique experiences, that is something that I think would really inspire travelers to travel to that site and then to also experience other places in New Mexico while they're here."

The Tourism Department's tourism campaign, New Mexico True, "is about adventure steeped in culture," he said.

"The traveler that we are looking to inspire is a traveler with an adventurous spirit, a thirst for authenticity, and in that regard, I really feel like the Valles Caldera National Preserve meets that market, really delivers on that spirit," he said.

Long awaited steps

Few people got a chance to set foot in the volcanic caldera until recently.

Valles Caldera spokesman Dave Krueger said the preserve was under private ownership from 1861 until 2000.

"When it was in private hands, people were not allowed on there unless they were working at the ranch or invited by the various ranch owners," he said. "Doesn't mean people didn't sneak on there from time to time, but for the most part, it was totally off hands. ... That's why there's still people today that lived in the area or worked in the area back in the '70s, '80s, '90s, and this is their first time into the park."

Public access has evolved over time, though vehicular traffic was and continues to be restricted.

Initially, when the Valles Caldera Trust oversaw operations, the Valle Grande Entrance Station, which is about two miles into the preserve, was the terminus for most visitors.

"The only way you could go beyond [the entrance station] was in a group shuttle tour," Silva-Bañuelos said, adding visitors can now drive to what is known as the Cabin District about two miles farther into the park.

"For those wishing to go beyond that point, we also introduced a backcountry vehicle pass that allows visitors to drive about 12 miles into the backcountry," he said. "All of that was newly implemented when the [National Park Service assumed management of the preserve in 2015] to try to expand that visitor access."

Only 35 backcountry vehicle permits have been issued daily. But last week, the National Park Service announced it was adding five more backcountry vehicle passes on a first-come, first-served basis, for a total of 40.

"One of our major limitations is infrastructure, and we're working on improving some of our roads to further expand that access into the front country," Silva-Bañuelos said. "Our desire over the next couple of years will be to improve a road that will allow visitors in the front country to head over to South Mountain trail head ... without having to get a backcountry vehicle pass."

The National Park Service has to strike a balance with the backcountry, he said.

"We hear a lot [about] this dual desire from the public," he said. "We want to expand access. We want to expand opportunities for recreation. But we also don't want to love this place to death."

Balancing visitation with 'primitive state'

Silva-Bañuelos said the goal is concentrate visitation within the front country "while then preserving the vast majority of Valles Caldera in more of a serene, primitive state."

The preserve plans to promote the idea that "a vehicle isn't the only way that you can or should experience Valles Caldera," he added.

"E-bikes, mountain bikes, horseback riding, overnight backcountry backpacking — all of those are different avenues that we're going to try to promote," he said.

Silva-Bañuelos said it's become a personal passion of his to be able to share "this amazing place" with others.

"We've spent a lot of effort on working on improving the ecology and restoring the landscape, and we've pivoting — we're not eliminating those goals by any means — but we're trying to focus our efforts in this next time period to really focus on improving and expanding that visitor access and recreation opportunities," he said. "I think once we have some of this basic infrastructure in place, it's just going to help showcase and invite more people to come out here and explore and experience Valles Caldera."

Leslie Bucklin, a spokeswoman for Los Alamos County who also went on the media tour, said the Valles Caldera has left a lasting impact on her and her family, in good times and bad.

In the fall, she said she and her family do "taco Tuesday tailgating" along one of the pullouts on N.M. 4, where Silva-Bañuelos hopes will have viewing platforms one day, and listen to the elk bugling.

"When we're frustrated or had a hard day or we're just exhausted or we just need to get away from something, we come up here, just stare at it," she said, laughing.

"It sounds like an insignificant thing when you say it out loud, but [when we say], 'I have to go for a quick drive,' that always means, 'I'm going to the Valle — I'll see you later,' " she said. "Yeah, there's something about it. It gets under your skin — in a good way. But it's kind of cool to see all the things that you don't normally get to see."

Follow Daniel J. Chacón on Twitter @danieljchacon.