Over 1 million years ago a volcano near Santa Fe erupted, and the core collapsed creating a huge caldera. This was a super volcano and the caldera is huge! Up to about 50,000 years ago there were magma ‘leaks’ that caused several dome-shaped hills within the caldera, separating the caldera into several areas.

The caldera is at 8,500 feet and the surrounding peaks are up to 11,000 feet. There are grassy meadows in between the dome-shaped hills, and is home to the largest herd of elk in the state. There are also bears, cougars and coyotes in the caldera along with thousands of prairie dogs.

Ranchers used to live in the caldera and there used to be a lot of snow in the caldera…up to 5-6 feet that would last all winter. Now there’s little snow and it doesn’t last more than a week.

Here are some pictures we took: