THE GOVERNMENT NEWS DESKPERMANENT NPS STORY ARCHIVE
Organized by publication date and destination. Each story retains its permanent State & Nation address and official NPS source.
The Pueblo Parks Group will implement Stage II fire restrictions on June 25, 2026, due to heightened wildfire danger across Bandelier, Fort Union, Pecos, and Valles Caldera. These restrictions prohibit open flames, smoking outside enclosed spaces, off‑road engine use, and explosives, with additional limits on vehicle operations to reduce fire risk.
Official NPS source
The National Park Service is set to begin winter pile burning operations within the San Antonio Mountain project area of Valles Caldera National Preserve beginning on or shortly after December 2nd, 2025. If conditions are not favorable to begin burning in San Antonio, the team will switch to burning piles on either South Mountain or Cerro Piñon. The area around the burn activities will be closed to public access until operations are completed.
Official NPS source
From October 4 through 12, the National Park Service will host the 2025 Valles Caldera Fall Fiesta—a time to celebrate the rich natural beauty and cultural heritage of this volcanic landscape.
Official NPS source
The National Park Service (NPS) has approved a Finding of No Significant Impact for Valles Caldera National Preserve’s Fire Management Plan Environmental Assessment.
Official NPS source
The National Park Service (NPS) invites public feedback on a draft general management plan and environmental assessment in August 2025. The plan would establish long-term direction for resource protection and visitor experiences at the park, as well as high-level concepts to guide potential future facility investments.
Official NPS source
On Friday, July 25, 2025, Valles Caldera National Preserve turns 25. To celebrate this public land milestone, we invite everyone to three days of special programs and evening hours in their national preserve.
Official NPS source
The National Park Service will resume the collection of park entrance fees at Valles Caldera National Preserve beginning January 1, 2025. Valles Caldera National Preserve will be able to retain 100 percent of the fees collected in the park for use on projects that directly benefit park visitors, including road, trail, and trailhead improvements. With this change, the NPS will also eliminate separate fees for fishing in the park. During a public comment period held this past summer, over two-thirds of comments supported reinstating the park entrance fee.
Official NPS source
Valles Caldera National Preserve has closed the backcountry vehicle route early this year due to the recent snowstorm and the forecast for additional snow over the next few days. Normally, the route remains open through November 15. The vehicle route is slated to open again on May 15, 2025, weather-permitting.
Official NPS source
Nine days of special events and guest programming attracted more than 3,000 visitors to Valles Caldera National Preserve for its second annual Fall Fiesta, which occurred October 5-13, 2024.
Official NPS source
The National Park Service (NPS) prepared a fire management plan for Valles Caldera National Preserve and is seeking public input on the plan’s environmental assessment from October 1 through November 3.
Official NPS source
The 2024 Valles Caldera Fall Fiesta starts in just a few days. The nine-day special event kicks off with dozens of tribal artisans, a special presentation from Superintendent Jorge Silva-Bañuelos, and a musical performance by Marlon Magdalena.
Official NPS source
The National Park Service (NPS) invites you to celebrate National Public Lands Day at Valles Caldera National Preserve on Saturday, September 28, 2024.
Official NPS source
The 2024 elk hunting season is underway in Valles Caldera National Preserve. Hunters who received a draw from New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (NMDGF) for Valles Caldera may be visible in the park.
Official NPS source
The National Park Service (NPS) has prepared a fire management plan for Valles Caldera National Preserve and is seeking public input on the plan’s environmental assessment from September 3 through October 3.
Official NPS source
From October 5 through October 13, we will be hosting the Valles Caldera Fall Fiesta—a time to celebrate rich natural beauty and cultural heritage of this special volcano.
Official NPS source
Work has begun on the third and final phase of decommissioning the retired natural gas pipeline that crosses the northern sections of Valles Caldera National Preserve. This phase continues with restoring natural ecological processes to a nine-mile-long section disturbed by the pipeline corridor, including reducing erosion, reconnecting wetlands, recontouring to promote natural revegetation, and removing evidence of the access road. During this reclamation work, the project area along with trail access from the park’s east boundary will be closed for the remainder of the year.
Official NPS source
Valles Caldera National Preserve is seeking public input on resuming the collection of park entrance fees. The public comment period runs through August 17, 2024.
Official NPS source
The National Park Service invites everyone to visit Valles Caldera National Preserve on the evening of July 5 for a special night sky viewing event.
Official NPS source
Valles Caldera National Preserve has selected five artists to take part in its inaugural Artist in Residence (AiR) program during the 2024 summer season.
Official NPS source
Today is opening day for the 2024 season of the backcountry vehicle route in Valles Caldera National Preserve. Every day, 35 vehicle passes are available ahead of time.
Official NPS source
The National Park Service is looking to expand visitor services at Valles Caldera National Preserve this year by working with local food vendors to offer different New Mexican cuisines.
Official NPS source
The high-elevation ecosystems of Valles Caldera National Preserve—ranging from 8,000 to 11,254 feet above sea level—support a great diversity of wildlife, including several thousand elk, healthy populations of Gunnison’s prairie dogs, mountain lions, bears, bobcats, and coyotes. A rich array of migratory birds can be found in the park’s woodlands, grasslands, and wetlands. Chorusing frogs can be heard throughout the day as they take advantage of the spring snow melt-off.
Official NPS source
Valles Caldera invites you to join a ranger this summer and experience the park like you’ve never experienced it before.
Official NPS source
Valles Caldera National Preserve is honored to have wonderful volunteers who enhance every aspect of the park. We invite you to join us! We are looking for volunteer support in welcoming visitors, conducting plant surveys, supporting education programs and media development, helping with trails projects, assisting hydrologic research, and searching for dendroglyphs.
Official NPS source
The National Park Service excited to announce a brand-new Junior Ranger experiential program at Valles Caldera. The program begins by conferring the honor of Junior Ranger onto each participant and then invites them to explore the park and learn more about the rich geologic, cultural, and natural stories found here.
Official NPS source
The National Park Service is celebrating National Park Week from April 20 through April 28. The theme for Sunday, April 28 is Arts in Parks and Valles Caldera is hosting some special activities to help foster your inner artist.
Official NPS source
The 2024 turkey hunt season begins today, April 15, and runs through April 30. Twenty tags were issued through the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish and each tag is good for one bearded turkey.
Official NPS source
The regional office of the National Park Service announced that two former Valles Caldera employees have received regional awards in their areas of expertise: Dr. Ana Steffen and Dr. Robert Parmenter.
Official NPS source
The National Park Service invites artists from all creative disciplines and genres to apply for the 2024 Artist-In-Residence program at Valles Caldera National Preserve.
Official NPS source
The National Park Service is seeking, horse-mounted, trespass cattle wrangling services at Valles Caldera National Preserve during the 2024 summer and fall seasons. This is one of the efforts the park is pursuing to reduce impacts to park resources from cattle trespassing from adjacent USDA Forest Service grazing allotments.
Official NPS source
Starting today, anglers can visit the park’s Fishing web page to apply for their 2024-25 fishing permit. Permits can also be obtained by stopping by one of the park’s two visitor service facilities and filling out the application in person. Anglers can apply for either an annual or a seven-day permit.
Official NPS source
The National Park Service is proud to share the 2023 annual report of Valles Caldera National Preserve. 2023 was a year of achievement as the park’s dedicated team worked toward making Valles Caldera the premier national park unit within New Mexico.
Official NPS sourceWith winter concluding, the National Park Service has completed its prescribed pile burning in Valles Caldera National Preserve for the season. These burns are part of a prescribed burn project to reduce material left from previous forest thinning work.
Official NPS source
After an amazing 21-year career of scientific inquiry and resource stewardship at Valles Caldera National Preserve, Dr. Robert Parmenter decided to hang up his NPS flat hat and retire.
Official NPS source
Last week, the National Park Service announced that 400 national parks reported a total of 325.5 million visits in 2023, an increase of 13 million—or 4%—over 2022. Valles Caldera National Preserve saw 76,090 people experience the park, an increase of more than 12,000—or 19%—over 2022.
Official NPS source
On Saturday, March 9, 2024, Valles Caldera National Preserve invites everyone to come up to the park and celebrate winter by participating in a series of special events. The park opens at 9 am with the first activity scheduled to start at 10 am.
Official NPS source
On February 16, 2024, Dr. Ana Steffen passed away after a courageous battle with cancer. She was one of the first federal employees to step foot on Valles Caldera National Preserve after it was acquired by the federal government in 2000 – first as an archaeologist for the U.S. Forest Service, Cultural Resources Coordinator for the Valles Caldera Trust, and finally as Cultural Resources Program Manager for the National Park Service.
Official NPS sourceBackcountry vehicle passes for May 15 through May 31 of the 2024 summer season are now available on Recreation.gov.
Official NPS sourceWith good snow conditions, National Park Service fire managers plan to start burning piles on 225 acres in the San Antonio Mountain Pile Unit as early as next Tuesday, January 16. Ignition operations are expected to take multiple days and daily acreage will depend on conditions.
Official NPS source
The National Park Service welcomed the brief, natural return of a Mexican wolf to Valles Caldera National Preserve. The last documented wolf in Valles Caldera was in 1932. Mexican wolves are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), which is commemorating its 50th anniversary today.
Official NPS sourceThe National Park Service plans to implement prescribed burn projects in Valles Caldera National Preserve beginning December 2023 through the end of the 2023-24 winter season as conditions allow. The prescribed burns will occur in previously thinned areas where materials have been piled for burning. The burn operations will be completed in phases over several days depending on weather and fuel conditions.
Official NPS source