Jemez Mountain Area

Jemez Mountains Area
The Jemez Mountains are part of the Santa Fe National Forest and have about the same type of trees and plant life as all New Mexico mountains have. This range of mountains lay northwest of Rio Rancho and Albuquerque, to the west of Santa Fe and to the south of Los Alamos. Their not that big a range of mountains but not that small either. The elevation varies from about 6000 feet up to about 10,000 feet.

We have spent many an hour roaming and exploring these mountains. If you look on a Forest Service map you will see the name of Jemez Springs which is small little village nestled in San Diego Canyon. It was home to the Jemez Indians of the regain when the Spanish Conquistadors first came. The remains of what was once a Catholic church and Spanish Mission that dates back to the early 1600’s is now a museum and tourist attraction located in the middle of Jemez Springs.
Jemez Springs was a retreat for many Catholic priests and nuns for a long time but has become more of an artist colony and tourist town in recent years. There is a hot springs with a bath house where you can bath in mineral waters that has been used for hundreds of years. There are several nice cafes, and small bed and breakfast homes, as well as some gift shops scattered among private residencies. There is still a saloon right on the main street as all old western towns were supposed to have with the local police station right across the street from it. The Forest Service office is on the north end of town. The town is large enough to have a post office, bank, fire station and real estate office, but no gas station. Or not at this time. When we first started going up there the town had two stations but with the EPA changes those went under. The main gas station is now located at the visitors center for Jemez Pueblo and has a decent convenience store with it which is run by the Jemez Indians.

It is on the road to Jemez Springs if you go there from Albuquerque. The Pueblo is about half way between San Ysideo, NM and Jemez Springs. You can find several road side stands run by the Indians where you can buy Indian oven bread, fry bread, and other Indian and Mexican food.

There are several of these stands across the road from the gas station and Walatowa (which means ‘This is the Place’ in the Towa language) Visitor’s Center with a beautiful view of red rock cliffs behind them. The cliffs are reddish-orange sandstone. The Visitor’s Center has a museum, gift shop, and lots of maps and information about the Jemez area. Usually there is someone from the Forest Service there who can direct you as well as sell you firewood permits in the fall for cutting firewood in the mountains, or Christmas tree permits closer to Christmas time.
We usually make a point of stopping and buying some fry bread that is fried right on the spot in big cast iron kettles on top of fires that are mostly native pinon and juniper wood giving the bread a fantastic smoky, outdoor flavor that you can’t come close to when doing fry bread in the house on a stove top.


http://www.jemezsprings.org/
http://www.jemezpueblo.com/content.asp?CustComKey=364333&CategoryKey=367388&pn=Page&DomName=jemezpueblo.com
There are several rest areas with bathrooms between Jemez Pueblo and Jemez Springs. These are also areas where you can fish as they all have access to Jemez Creek. There are two that allow picnicking but require a day fee. There is no night camping in these rest areas. They are run by the Pueblo and Forest Service. We nearly always stop at one or another when we go to the mountains. They are full of native trees and brush, with lots of birds and lizards. We see raccoon and deer tracks by the creek. One day Lee said he saw an otter but I didn’t get to see it. Frequently we take Tuffee to one for a quiet walk when we don’t have the time to go all the way to the mountains. Most have some paved trails that are wheelchair accessible and are great for walking the dog. Usually we are the only ones there, even on weekends in the winter time.