Before Cerro Grande Fire: Jemez Mountains West of Los Alamos, New Mexico

Terry Foxx's book, Out of the Ashes (available on Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Environment webpage as a free download), has a 1999 photo that shows the Jemez Mountains west of Los Alamos, before the Cerro Grande Fire in 2000. Other than that one, I could only find online the stunning aerial photo (JPG) of the Pajarito Plateau that Dan Elliott took for LANL (couldn't find the date). If you look above the green grassy area of the Los Alamos Golf Course (right middle), you'll see the small, triangular bald patch of LA/Burnt Mountain. The ridge that Pipeline Road follows to the rim of the Valles Caldera is to the left of that. The light, straight slash up the ridge is the actual trace of the natural gas pipeline and not Pipeline Road. The mountains were so heavily treed before 2000 that it's difficult to see the faint path of Pipeline Road. Below are three scanned photos that I took when I owned a Minolta SR-T 101 35mm camera. They give the flavor of how our mountains looked before the 2000 Cerro Grande fire.

(1) Before Cerro Grande Fire: Jemez Mountains West of Los Alamos, NM

This may have been taken from Canyon Road, summer 1986. From left to right (south to north) are the north branch of Pueblo Canyon; then Pueblo Ridge, which terminates in LA/Burnt Mountain; Quemazon/Rendija Mountain (the highest in this photo); and the area of the Mitchell Trail beneath Guaje Ridge. LA/Burnt Mountain had only a small burn on its east facing slope and looks quite filled in with vegetation in this photo.

Quemazon/Rendija Mountain has no formal name. Years ago, I first heard it called Quemazon Mountain. Recently, in reading Terry Foxx's Out of the Ashes, I saw that she called it Rendija Mountain because Rendija Canyon originates from its east side. Rendija Canyon was also severely burnt (PDF) in the 2000 Cerro Grande Fire. It's the next drainage north of Pueblo Canyon. Quemazon Canyon and Pipeline Road wrap around the west side of this mountain. On Google Earth, the altitude for Quemazon/Rendija Mountain is almost 9800' - a hunk of earth to be respected! I know of oldtimers who have hiked down Quemazon Mountain, back to town.

(2) Before Cerro Grande Fire: Jemez Mountains West of Los Alamos, NM

This was taken autumn 1991. It shows the Los Alamos County Municipal building (soon to be torn down) with Ashley Pond (JPG) and its famous ducks. Quemazon/Rendija Mountain is above the municipal building. The aspen-sprinkled double peak near the left (south) edge of the scene is Cerro Bonito, a mountain north of Pajarito Mountain.

(3) Before Cerro Grande Fire: Jemez Mountains West of Los Alamos, NM

This shows the mountain tops, northward from Quemazon/Rendija Mountain over to Caballo Peak. Here's a panoramic photo (JPG) of the Pajarito Plateau in winter, post-Cerro Grande, created by Kirt Kempter. The most severely burnt areas appear whitest with snow.