New in paperback, this book tells the natural and human history of the Valles Caldera preserve. In 2000, President Clinton signed into law the Valles Caldera Preservation Act, legislation that transferred to the public domain a privately owned ranch in northern New Mexico. This history outlines the unique administrative experiment now underway to manage its public lands. In addition, the splendour of this rare place is captured in beautiful photographs.

Avid hiker Coco Rae shares her extensive knowledge and her love of exploration at one of New Mexico’s greatest treasures in this updated and expanded edition of Hiking Trails in Valles Caldera National Preserve. The first comprehensive trail guide to Valles Caldera National Preserve now includes over seventy color photographs and everything visitors need to know to enjoy this vast caldera, one of the largest in the United States. The guide includes detailed descriptions of over twenty-five trails accompanied by topographical maps, recommendations for mountain bikers, and a history of the preserve. A geological and environmental wonder created over a million years ago, Valles Caldera National Preserve, west of Los Alamos, New Mexico, offers outdoor enthusiasts and nature lovers endless opportunities to discover the natural history of New Mexico through the caldera’s vast mountain meadows, extensive biodiversity, and meandering streams. Hiking Trails in Valles Caldera National Preserve offers first-time and returning visitors a complete guide to the recreation and beauty found in this unique landscape.

The Valles Caldera consists of a twelve-mile-wide collapsed volcanic crater and more than ten postcollapse volcanic domes in New Mexico's Jemez Mountains. For over a century, it was safeguarded within the 89,000-acre Baca Ranch. In the year 2000, Congress passed the Valles Caldera Preservation Act, creating the Valles Caldera Trust to purchase the ranch and create a nine-member board of trustees responsible for the protection and development of the Valles Caldera National Preserve. With special permission, qualified geologists interested in volcanic processes and hydrothermal systems have been allowed to conduct research on the preserve. One of those volcanologists, Fraser Goff, collaborated with the Valles Caldera Trust to provide an accessible scientific overview of the caldera's geologic wonders. Presented in two parts, Valles Caldera first offers a summary of significant geologic events that have taken place in the Valles Caldera area. Then Goff presents the geology, volcanology, and geothermal characteristics of the Caldera and the Jemez volcanic field. Geologic terms and names unfamiliar to all but professional geologists are defined in a summarizing glossary.

This study focuses on the cultural-historical environment of the 88,900-acre (35,560-ha) Valles Caldera National Preserve (VCNP) over the past four centuries of Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. governance. It includes a review and synthesis of available published and unpublished historical, ethnohistorical, and ethnographic literature about the human occupation of the area now contained within the VCNP. Documents include historical maps, texts, letters, diaries, business records, photographs, land and mineral patents, and court testimony.

Avid hiker Coco Rae shares her extensive knowledge and her love of exploration at one of New Mexico's greatest treasures in this updated and expanded edition of Hiking Trails in Valles Caldera National Preserve. The first comprehensive trail guide to Valles Caldera National Preserve now includes over seventy color photographs and everything visitors need to know to enjoy this vast caldera, one of the largest in the United States. The guide includes detailed descriptions of over twenty-five trails accompanied by topographical maps, recommendations for mountain bikers, and a history of the preserve. A geological and environmental wonder created over a million years ago, Valles Caldera National Preserve, west of Los Alamos, New Mexico, offers outdoor enthusiasts and nature lovers endless opportunities to discover the natural history of New Mexico through the caldera's vast mountain meadows, extensive biodiversity, and meandering streams. Hiking Trails in Valles Caldera National Preserve offers first-time and returning visitors a complete guide to the recreation and beauty found in this unique landscape.