"Growing up, Valles Caldera, or The Valle as we called it, was always a place of seductive mystery. We loved it from afar, from the top of Pajarito Ski Hill, from the edges of New Mexico Highway 4, but never from inside its forbidden boundaries." In this series, artist-in-residence Melissa Fu shares place-based memories and ponderings that weave together her upbringing in the Jemez Mountains and her recent residency at Valles Caldera National Preserve.
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Valles Caldera National Preserve
Article 1: "Arrival" by Melissa Fu
It is astonishing to be here. Although I now live in Cambridge, England, I was born and raised 15 miles down the road in Los Alamos. Growing up, Valles Caldera, or The Valle as we called it, was always a place of seductive mystery. We loved it from afar, from the top of Pajarito Ski Hill, from the edges of New Mexico Highway 4, but never from inside its forbidden boundaries. Read more
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Valles Caldera National Preserve
Article 2: "A Stewardship of Storytelling" by Melissa Fu
Ahead of my residency at Valles Caldera, I thought a lot about the fact that the reason I’m able to be here is that this land is now no longer privately owned. Like all of the properties under the aegis of the National Park Service, it is public land. We, the public, own the land in the sense that is it no longer in the hands of private individuals. But what does this kind of ownership mean? What is our relationship, as private individuals, to public lands? Read more
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Valles Caldera National Preserve
Article 3: "Valles Caldera - Setting the Scene" by Melissa Fu
What you have to understand is that we’re sitting in the middle of a volcano. Not an active one, mind you; we won’t be fleeing ash clouds and lava flow without warning. But not an extinct one, either. So don’t get too complacent. This volcano is dormant. It’s only sleeping. Activity is still very much possible. Read more
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Valles Caldera National Preserve
Article 4: "The History Grove" by Melissa Fu
On the first morning of my residency, I stroll half a mile along an old dirt logging road towards History Grove, a 125-acre stand of ponderosa pine and Douglas fir. These are some of the oldest living trees in Valles Caldera, ranging from 250-400 years. To visit History Grove is to start to understand the many layers of story in Valles Caldera. Read more
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Valles Caldera National Preserve
Article 5: "Nurturing a Land Ethic - In the Footsteps of Aldo Leopold" by Melissa Fu
I have a not-so-secret agenda nestled in my stewardship of storytelling. I’d even call it a mission. My hope is that this work contributes to people articulating and nurturing their own personal versions of the land ethic. What is the land ethic? Read more
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Valles Caldera National Preserve
Article 6: "Obsidian Valley" by Melissa Fu
Morning e-bike ride to Obsidian Valley. I had forgotten how thrilling it is to ride a bike in the mountains. Nothing compares with the pure joy of coasting through patches of sun and shade, the scents of ponderosas, warm dust, and mountain sage in the air. Read more
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Valles Caldera National Preserve
Article 7: "Cerro La Jara" by Melissa Fu
On my first walk around Cerro La Jara, when rounding the north side of the dome, I see two coyotes hunting and loping along. Their tawny browns, blacks and grays blend in with the grasses. I hold my phone camera up, recording a video while tracking them with my bare eyes. Transfixed, I watch until they dissolve into the landscape. When I look at the video later, they aren’t there. Of course they aren’t. Read more
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Article 8: "In the Eye of the Beholder" by Melissa Fu
Every time I venture on a new trail, I scan the mountains, looking for burn scars, trying to gauge the extent of the Las Conchas (2011) and Thompson Ridge (2013) fires. It’s one thing to study a color-coded map that shows severity and extent of the burns, it’s another to stand on a hillside among acres and acres of downed trees, then see similar damage miles away caused by the same fire. Read more
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Valles Caldera National Preserve
Article 9: "Departure" by Melissa Fu
My UK life is knocking at the door, emails are leaking in: dentist appointment reminders, tutoring to arrange for my daughter, my own teaching and mentoring jobs resurfacing. A small but perceptible shift in my heart, time to go home. Home to the life I’ve built and nourished in England over the past 18 years. Read more
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Valles Caldera National Preserve
Article 10: "Benediction" by Melissa Fu
I’ve had the extended, focused time in the mountains I have missed and dreamed of for years. But the time has also shown me who I am away from the mountains. I am of the mountains but not always in them. Like obsidian from Cerro del Medio, I bear the fingerprint of the Jemez in all that I do. But, like the much of the obsidian, I, too, have travelled far from my point of origin. Read more
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Valles Caldera National Preserve
Article 11: Acknowledgements and Resources
Spending three weeks as an Artist-In-Residence living, hiking, and writing in Valles Caldera was an incredible gift. The writing I’ve included here is just the beginning, there are so many more stories to write and tell. I hope to return and to continue. But for now, I’d like to thank all the staff who did so much to make me feel at home. Read more