Santa Fe National Forest (Las Conchas Trail) and Valles Caldera National Preserve (VC02)(New Mexico)

I spend my last day hiking two trails - the Las Conchas Trail in the Santa Fe National Forest and the VC02 Trail in Valles Caldera National Preserve.

The Las Conchas Trail is a beautiful four mile roundtrip hike following the East Fork Jemez River.  The trail travels through rock canyons and grassy meadows.  

My second and last hike was the VC02 Trail at Valles Caldera.  The trail was a double track road that gradually ascended for the first 1.5 miles.  The trail then climbed more steeply to a saddle between two mountains, where VC02 split off to the right.  I elected to take an unmarked trail to the left until running into a large amount of downed trees.  I then hiked off-trail around 100 yards to a spot providing an overlook of the caldera.   The total roundtrip distance was 4.3 miles.