Pipeline Road: A Walk in the Cerro Grande Burned Area

Pipeline Road, Los Alamos County Open Space and Santa Fe National Forest, Los Alamos County, New Mexico, March 18, 2008

On March 17 and 18, I walked up Pipeline Road to its intersection with the Quemazon Trail. On the 17th, as I hiked uphill, I obviously became anoxic and drunk on endorphins, because I concocted grandiose plans for a photo blog of a walk in the 2000 Cerro Grande burned area. That day, I had started my walk in the afternoon and shooting conditions were ideal - the light was golden, with white, puffy clouds floating above the mountains; however, I, in my immense wisdom, had left my camera at home!

On the 18th, camera bag slung from my shoulder containing my powerful (er - paltry), Canon Powershot A540 point and shoot digital, I got an early-for-me 9:30 am start and was dismayed by the total lack of clouds and the early morning haze that shrouded the atmosphere.

Pipeline Road starts from Quemazon Community on the west side of Los Alamos, NM. Here are directions that Craig Martin provides in Los Alamos Trails:

"From Diamond and Trinity, travel north on Diamond 0.5 mile to North Road. Turn left on North Road and drop to Quemazon Road, the first intersection on the left. Turn left and climb on Quemazon Road 0.7 mile to the intersection with the paved portion of Pipeline Road (unsigned) to the left."

Pipeline Road is a just after the intersection of Quemazon and Torreon, near a small rock gabion. Red-lettered street signs warn not to block access to Pipeline. Craig's book says the paving ends in 0.1 mile but I must warn you that it's a very steep and narrow 0.1 miles! I drove my mid-size passenger car up it once but there isn't much room for turning around at the end of the pavement so I never had the desire to do it again. Anyway, parking on the street and walking up gets you all warmed up for the climbing to come!

According to information in Los Alamos Trails, you start at 7700' and end at 8800' at the Pipeline Road-Quemazon Trail intersection. If you follow Pipeline all the way to its intersection with the Guaje Canyon-Cañada Bonita Trail on the Valles Caldera Rim, you'll have walked 6.3 miles one way and gained 2,200' elevation (going up to 9900').

Scoured North Branch of Pueblo Canyon

This view is at the top of the hill, just before the locked gate (below). Upper Pueblo Canyon's north and south drainages were severely burnt in the 2000 Cerro Grande Fire. The north branch of Pueblo Canyon now has the look of a major river. It was scoured in the years after the fire by tremendous runoff from numerous rain events that caused massive erosion of the hard-baked, denuded slopes above Pueblo Canyon. From this overlook, the drainage goes upstream and then dead ends on the steep slopes of the burnt mountains. I never really considered how trees and vegetation help to slow the runoff into our canyons because the whole ecosystem always efficiently sent water downstream without harming life or property. All that changed in 2000.

No Vehicular Traffic Beyond

The sign on the locked gate states “Road Closed” but doesn’t specify that all motorized traffic is prohibited. I checked with Mesa Public Library reference librarians who called Craig Martin, Los Alamos County Open Space Specialist. He said Pipeline has been closed to all but foot traffic and non-motorized bicyclists since the Cerro Grande Fire in 2000. This is due to hazards like numerous fallen trees across the road. According to Martin, the Forest Service may reconsider reopening it one day but that decision is at least a year away at the earliest. I can understand people wanting to drive up the road, with its spectacular views along the way and even more fantastic views when you top out on the Valles Caldera Rim; but, for the meantime, I'm happy to enjoy the peace of a non-motorized hiking experience.

The tall ponderosa pines here belie the Cerro Grande Fire's destruction of the forest that once surrounded Pipeline Road. The surface of Pipeline Road is a mix of solid tuff, dirt, rocks, and gravel. Wear shoes with good tread as the footing can be slippery.

Pipeline Road Turns Right

Very soon after passing the locked gate, I missed the right turn and followed the road to the left, only realizing my mistake when I came to a green water tank above Quemazon Community. From near the water tank, the trace of the buried natural gas pipeline goes in a straight line west up toward Pipeline Road. From Quemazon Community to the Quemazon Trail intersection, the actual pipeline doesn’t follow Pipeline Road but crisscrosses the road from south to north and back again.

When I got back to the Pipeline intersection, I redesigned the cairn to make it more noticeable but in this photo, it's completely hidden in the shade of the trees. Here again, a few more trees were spared while all around burned.

North Community from Pipeline Road

You can see the set-up here - the North Community neighborhood was downhill and at the edge of a roaring, wind-driven wildfire. The Cerro Grande Fire was moving to the north and west of Los Alamos. This report, written within days of the heartbreaking loss of homes, may explain why there wasn't total loss of tree canopy in North Community. Jack Cohen, the author, concludes that while the Cerro Grande Fire which destroyed the forests was a raging crown fire, the fire that destroyed the homes was a lower intensity surface fire. With very few exceptions, Cohen states that "...firebrands (burning embers from other fires) ignited the home[s] directly and/or in adjacent flammable materials that spread to the home."

Whether surface or crown, it's of little comfort to the victims of Cerro Grande who lost their homes and all their possessions. Cohen, however, raises interesting issues about maintaining defensible space around a home. He observes that several homes whose owners had done such seemingly minor defensible space activities like creating a perimeter free of pine needles around the house avoided ignition during the fast moving Cerro Grande Fire.

During 2003, Los Alamos County conducted a defensible space project that assisted homeowners in protecting their property from wildfire. Although the project is over now, the county is continuing to do their part to reduce fire danger by maintenance burning of grassy fuels and slash piles and thinning in the canyons. Having canyons less filled with flammable vegetation seems like a win-win situation when you consider that the houses in the Los Alamos townsite are built on mesas above the canyons.

Perimeter Trail Crosses Pipeline Road

This occurs soon after the right turn onto Pipeline. Here, Perimeter Trail, part of
Los Alamos County Open Space Trail Network, is going north past LA/Burnt Mountain and on to North Community. Note how the dead ponderosa pine has been neatly cut away from the trail. Los Alamos County Open Space trails are maintained by community volunteers. Some groups that volunteer are the Sierra Club Pajarito Group and the Tuff Riders Mountain Bike Club. The Los Alamos County Volunteer Task Force coordinates many, many more individual and group volunteers.

Burnt Mountain is also called LA Mountain because Los Alamos High School seniors paint a big LA on it every year. It was the site of a small fire in 1954.

Except for its very beginning in Los Alamos County Open Space, Pipeline Road traverses to the Valles Caldera Rim in the Española Ranger District of the Santa Fe National Forest.

Pipeline Road Ridge

To the right of the tall, burnt tree top (middle) is a shapely peak that's rimmed on its left with green conifers. That is, I'm almost certain, my destination - the intersection of the Quemazon Trail with Pipeline Road. Pipeline Road Ridge, though not an official name, seems appropriate since the road snakes over these mountain tops so perfectly. The north branch of Pueblo Canyon falls off on one side of the ridge and the south branch on the other.

Note in the foreground a number of young ponderosas hiding in the grass. They were planted after the fire. If you've ever visited the Burnt Mesa Trail in Bandelier National Monument, you have witnessed recovery that dates back to the 1977 La Mesa Fire.

Teralene Foxx, fire ecologist, wrote a beautiful, priceless treasure of a book in 2001, Out of the Ashes. If the book is out of print (Amazon has copies of the 36 page book for $34 so it must be), get the book from your library. You can also download the book as a PDF on the LANL Environment website. It's well worth reading. Foxx gently and sensitively educates the reader that fire is a natural process and demonstrates with photos and drawings the timescale over which recovery will occur. The book has photos of the vegetative recovery process after the La Mesa Fire. It also contains amazing photos of fire recovery, young aspens and sprouting shrubs, that had already occurred within months after the Cerro Grande Fire.

Mountains Tower Above

As you climb Pipeline and see the mountains so far above you, it seems completely impossible that an ordinary dirt road will take you right alongside those mountains; yet, Pipeline seamlessly carries you to the heights! Along the way - look closely - there are remnant roads leading through the stick forest that lead to good viewpoints. In the grass, there are plenty of young ponderosas marching determinedly uphill. That diagonal slash at the base of the mountain is a steep straightaway on Pipeline Road - if you just keep looking back as the vast views open to the east, you won't feel any pain (well, hardly any)!

The recovery of the burned area is beautiful in its starkness. I wonder what it will look like when wildflowers are blooming.

Pueblo Ridge and Helispot

Let's call the unnamed ridge in this photo Pueblo Ridge since its ramparts rise above the north fork of Pueblo Canyon. Look on the right middle for an S swirl of Pipeline Road. At the top of the swirl, above and left, is a lighter, cleared bench perched above north Pueblo Canyon. In Los Alamos Trails, Craig Martin says this is a "...former helispot created during the Cerro Grande Fire". It served as a temporary landing and take-off spot for helicopters.

Closer View of Helispot

Another view of Pueblo Ridge with the helispot beneath it. On Google Earth, the helispot appears as a small, light circular area. The next burnt ridge over, above the shadowy rocks, is Guaje Ridge. The dark peak on the left horizon is Clara Peak, a former fire lookout, outside of Española, NM.

View North from Pipeline Road

The large, unburnt meadow on Caballo Peak can be seen just above the toasted mountains. It's on Los Alamos County's northern border and is the highest point in the county. The mountain on the left is Quemazon/Rendija Mountain. It's at the head of Rendija Canyon, the next watershed north of Pueblo Canyon.

Gas Pipeline Valve Station

The natural gas pipeline from Farmington, NM serves Los Alamos and LANL as well as the communities of Española and Santa Fe. This webpage, from the U.S. Department of Transportation, gives general information about pipelines and has a link to a National Pipeline Mapping System Public Map Viewer which you can use to follow the general route of the pipeline, county by county. Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) still owns the pipeline but on January 15, 2008, they agreed to sell the natural gas portion of their business to Continental Energy Systems. The pipeline was built by the Atomic Energy Commission in the 1950's to provide the lab and the town a reliable source of natural gas.

Trees Over Road

From Quemazon Community to the Quemazon Trail intersection, there were almost 20 dead and down trees that had fallen over the full width of Pipeline road as of March 18, 2008. This is looking north.

Chopped Up Tree by Side of Road

Does unofficial road-clearing go on?

Ghost Forest Above Gambel Oak

There are still plenty more trees yet to fall in the burned area so avoid it on really windy days.

Young Ponderosa Pine Nursery

The growth of the pines on this hillside is very gratifying. Across the south branch of Pueblo Canyon (middle) is the Quemazon Trail area and beyond that is Camp May Road (where the remnant green edge of conifers are). Pajarito Canyon is below the snowy ridge on the horizon. (The ridge is called the Knife-edge by some and it goes up to the meadows on Pajarito Mountain's south side.) The upper Pajarito Canyon Trail that went to the top of Pajarito Mountain was destroyed by the fire.

Quemazon Intersection in the Trees

The rim of trees on the peak ahead is where Pipeline Road is heading. The road up to the intersection is steep!

St. Peter's Dome, San Miguel Mountains

St. Peter's Dome ( on right side, in front of far off Sandia Mountain) was severely burnt in the Dome Fire of Spring 1996. This website gives some Jemez Mountains Fire History.

Pajarito Mountain Ski Area and Kinnikinnick

Pajarito Mountain Ski Area’s Townsight Lift (the long, wide one on the left (east)) looks so close. You can see where the 2000 Cerro Grande Fire burned a broad swath on the east side of the mountain but spared all the ski runs.

Stream Runs on Pipeline Road

This is right around mile 2. The stream is running down and across the road, from a drainage at the top of the photo, into the south branch of Pueblo Canyon. This is causing some erosion.

Culvert

Here are two culverts that are maintaining drainage under the road. They also drain into the south branch of Pueblo Canyon. These are uphill from the stream-in-the-road situation above.

Reforestation Sign

This sign, from Spring 2003, states that the area would be reforested.

Nothing Grew

This is near the reforestation sign above but it looks like the effort wasn't successful here in this severely burnt drainage. On a hopeful note, this wonderful web page shows before and after Photos of Vegetative Recovery in the Pueblo Watershed . Click on the map to see recovery in vegetation transects near and around Pipeline Road that are monitored by volunteers.

South Pueblo Canyon

Pueblo Canyon's north and south branches merge into one further downstream. Pueblo itself merges into Los Alamos Canyon, near the bottom of the Main Hill Road (NM 502).

Snow Patch

Large patches of snow on Pipeline were less than 10 in number as of March 18, 2008, and occurred mainly after the first 1 1/2 to 2 miles. The most snow was at the Pipeline Road-Quemazon Trail intersection.

Trees

The destination - Quemazon Trail - is at the top of the hill. Don't be fooled by the trees - a small remnant forest somehow escaped destruction here.

Remnant Forest

Perhaps this gives a taste of what the overcrowded forest conditions were like before the Cerro Grande Fire. A 1996 New York Times article,"In Sick, Crowded Forests of the West, Seeds of Infernos Lie Ominously in Wait", details the problems that land managers face in dealing with forests that are unhealthily overloaded with trees. The article was written right after the Dome Fire. It ended with the prediction that "Fifty years from now we'll see crown fires of biblical proportions." Unfortunately, we didn't have to wait that long.

Quemazon Trail Intersection

My ski pole went down 3' in a few places by the side of the road here. From its terminus at Pipeline Road, the Quemazon Trail goes steeply downhill to its trailhead in the Western Area neighborhood of Los Alamos.

Pipeline Road Climbs Onwards

From here, you have about 3.5 miles more to walk Pipeline Road before it crosses the Guaje Canyon Trail at an overlook into the Valle de los Posos, far below in the Valles Caldera National Preserve. The pipeline is actually coming up from the Preserve, originating from the natural gas fields in the San Juan Basin in the northwest corner of New Mexico. The Valles Caldera National Preserve is closed to all entry from the rim unless you're a cow!

The trees here are only a facade because right after this, there is a treeless stretch that got badly burnt in the 2000 Cerro Grande Fire.

Los Alamos National Laboratory

LANL is located south of the townsite of Los Alamos and is accessed via the Omega Bridge over Los Alamos Canyon. On the afternoon of May 10, 2000, the fire jumped Los Alamos Canyon, forcing the evacuation of Los Alamos. Cerro Grande also burned lab land as explained in the PDF file: Fact Sheet: Impact of the Cerro Grande Fire on Los Alamos National Laboratory Land, June 1, 2000. According to the fact sheet, which was only a preliminary assessment, 9000 acres of lab land burned (more than 30% of their total land). Property losses occurred to portable buildings and historic structures, and LANL built two new buildings as a result of the Cerro Grande Fire. The majority of burned lab land was of low burn severity but there were areas (203 acres ) of high severity burn, south of Pajarito Road. This PDF report, Final Progress Report on Los Alamos National Laboratory Cerro Grande Fire Rehabilitation Activities, October 2003, gives more information on fire recovery on lab land.

Los Alamos, New Mexico

In the middle foreground is Los Alamos Mesa, also called Los Alamos Townsite. Pueblo Canyon is on the left (north) and Los Alamos Canyon on the right (south). The Sangre de Cristos are the snowcapped mountains to the east.

Downtown Los Alamos, the Eastern Area, the Western Area, Quemazon Community, and the Denver Steels neighborhoods are all located on Los Alamos Mesa. This webpage gives a brief rundown of all the neighborhoods in Los Alamos and White Rock if you are curious.

For more information on the Los Alamos County recovery from the Cerro Grande Fire, please see these resources:

Cerro Grande Restoration: Five Years of Community-Based Success
At the bottom of the webpage, click on "Download a Power Point presentation on Post-Fire Recovery" for an excellent synopsis of all the recovery and rehabilitation work that has been done since 2000.

Cerro Grande Fire Recovery
Download a "Final Issue" of "The Recovery Report: Cerro Grande Fire Recovery Newsletter", February 2004, which details work done by Los Alamos County after the fire to rehabilitate county infrastructure and neighborhoods. Details are also given regarding the 2003 defensible space project conducted by the county.

Pajarito Plateau Watershed Partnership
Under a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Pajarito Plateau Watershed Partnership (PPWP), was formed with citizens and allied professionals. In conjunction with the Volunteer Task Force (VTF), it worked to rehabilitate the watersheds damaged by the Cerro Grande Fire on the Pajarito Plateau with special emphasis on the severely burned Pueblo and Rendija canyons.

The website is filled with information on projects done by the PPWP and VTF such as revegetation with seed balls, rebuilding trails, replanting vegetation along watercourses, and educating the public on water quality issues, fire ecology and post-fire recovery. The last posted meeting minutes for the PPWP are from August 2005. I'm not familiar with the current working status of the group but the website is a testament to the hours and hours of work that the volunteers did to rehabilitate the Cerro Grande burned area. The VTF is an active group.

Pipeline Road Area

The topo map for the area is Guaje Mountain. The first waypoint on the map above is at about the 2 mile mark on Pipeline Road and the second one is at the Pipeline Road-Quemazon Trail intersection. The map erroneously labels Pipeline Road as Quemazon Trail. If you search for Pipeline Rd., Los Alamos, NM 87544 on Google Earth, you can enjoy exploring the geography of this area with your mouse!