Jemez Falls, Jemez Mountains, 2/5/2012

We decided to go snow shoeing at the Valle Caldera in the Jemez mountains today. Just about 5 miles from the Valle the road turned icy and we had to turn around. Thinking this was a lost day for hiking, we passed a Jemez Falls campground and Jim remembered that it the falls are only about 1/2 a mile walk from the end of the campground. The day was overcast and what you cannot see is a very fine snow that came down all day. This is the entrance to the campground with cattle guard in front.

We snowshoed about a mile to the campground, then about a mile to reach the end of the campground and 1/4 mile to the fall.

While not clear from this picture, the falls are large. What you see is a wall of ice with water dripping in a pool at the bottom of the falls. Although it was a grey day with the sun trying to peak out from time to time looking like a foggy moon, we ended up with a great snowshoeing day.