Valles Caldera during the winter is a hidden gem, visitors say

Mar. 9—VALLES CALDERA — A love for the outdoors has run through at least four generations of Valli Aran's family.

It may have started with her adventurous father, who most memorably packed up his family for a summer road trip from California all the way to the Arctic Circle decades ago, when Aran was a teen.

On Saturday, Aran joined her children and grandchildren for a trip from their home in Albuquerque to Valles Caldera National Preserve, west of Los Alamos, for the nature preserve's first-ever Winter Fest.

A few dozen children and adults filtered through Valles Caldera Ranger Station to drink hot chocolate, set off on snowshoe or cross-country ski routes, make paper snowflakes, build snow creatures and learn about the park.

Aran's 7-year-old grandson Ezra Stein threw himself into making a larger-than-life-size snowman, with the help of a few adults and 6 inches of fresh powder from a Friday snowstorm.

The best part of winter, he announced, flopping on his stomach from the effort, is "building snowmen and hot cocoa!"

Adults cited the open vistas and thriving wildlife as the most thrilling aspects of the preserve.

"The best part is when you see a coyote or some foxes or, you know, if you're biking out someplace and a group of elk come roaring across [the trail]; that's just very cool to be out in the wild with them," Los Alamos resident Pam Erickson said, returning from a morning ski across the preserve.

In the fall, during the elk rut — or mating season — visitors to the caldera can sit at tree line to listen to bulls bugle and sometimes watch them fight, added fellow skier Margie Stockton.

On Saturday, visitors ogled at coyotes visible from the road and several hundred elk grazing in the distance, a herd that recently returned to the caldera from lower elevations, volunteer Bill Sayre said.

Meanwhile, outside the ranger station, Ranger Melanie Portillo read a book about how animals from butterflies to bears survive the winter to an audience of younger kids decked out in colorful snowsuits and hats.

Rangers hosted the Winter Fest, which they plan to continue in future years, to entice more kids and families to explore the caldera during the winter, Portillo said.

"The hopes of Winter Fest was of course ... that they can learn to fall in love with winter and also gain an appreciation for Valles Caldera as a whole, so we can continue to preserve and protect the area," she said.

Vani Aran described the caldera as a hidden gem.

"I still feel like it's not very well known. It's never too busy here," she said. "You can always get here and get away from people, which is what I like."

Dave Krueger, a National Park Service spokesman, said the park saw a "huge spike" in visitation in 2021, following the COVID-19 pandemic, receiving over 76,500 visits. Visitation in 2023 was roughly the same, at about 76,100 visits.

Exploring the park is also free year-round. Fees were instituted for a few years after the land became a National Park Service unit in 2014 but have since been suspended because rangers found the fees were turning visitors away, Krueger said.

"We wanted people to experience this place," he added.

Valles Caldera leaders are currently in a planning phase to figure out whether and how much to expand the visitor experience in the park, he said. They expect to complete the park's General Management Plan in 2025.