Understand
While the Jemez Mountains may look like part of the Rocky Mountains, they are distinct from the Rockies geologically, and are the remnant of a "super-volcano" that had a catastrophic eruption about a million years ago, with several lesser but still significant eruptions since then. This violent past shapes many of the attractions of the region: Los Alamos and Bandelier National Monument sit on a great ash flow from the climactic eruption, while Valles Caldera National Preserve contains a number of volcanic features and preserves the eruptive center itself. You'll enjoy your sightseeing in the mountains more if you do a little homework to understand what you're seeing; web pages that provide good stuff on the geology, without requiring education as a geologist to grok it, are:
Jemez Mountains pages at Volcano World (http://www.volcanoworld.o...)
Valles Caldera page at the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program (http://www.volcano.si.edu...)
The Jemez were the scene of several major forest fires in the latter part of the 20th century, the most serious of which destroyed a number of homes in Los Alamos and nearly 50,000 acres of forest. These fires have had lasting effects on recreational opportunities in the mountains. Several previously excellent hiking areas are either closed altogether or severely restricted because of fire damage. Considerable rethinking of fire-prevention goals and policies is in progress, with the result that limitations on open campfires, etc., may seem a little restrictive. Please honor these restrictions; several of the fires resulted from poorly-constructed campfires, and residents of the area are understandably skittish about it happening again.
