New Mexico (07-01-17)

Alamogordo

There are several issues we are still dealing with in El Paso, so that’s where we spent the last weeks of June.  We took advantage of a break in the action though, and took a short vacation.

My only goal was to get out of the heat (temps have been over 100 every day in El Paso) and do some hiking. I was thwarted in that desire for the first day or so- it was over 100* in Alamogordo too. 

We did do some exploring though.  This is pistachio country so we went to a local farm and tested some pistachios and some wines.  I liked this Pistachio Rose, so I bought it and will wait and share it with friends at some point.

Nearby is White Sands National Monument.  I have never seen it, so we got up early in the morning to check it out before it got too hot.

The sand looks an awful lot like snow, and acts like it in some ways too.

This is the world’s largest gypsum dune field.  There are several hiking trails but we kept to the short ones due to the hot temperatures. 

You can also buy saucers for sledding down the hill, but they are $16 each, yikes!  I think if someone had never been sledding on snow, maybe it would be worth it, but trust me, they weren’t moving as fast as they would have been on real snow.

Cloudcroft

Cloudcroft, like it’s name suggest, sits high in the clouds, at about 8500 ft.  Tired of being hot, we planned a day trip up to this small resort town.

Our first stop was the outdoor museum, which contained quite a few restored historic buildings.  This one caught my eye. 

Back in the day, public outhouses were differentiated by the symbol carved in the door.  The “ladies room” had a  half moon, and the “men’s room” had a star or a sun.  However, apparently the guys weren’t as diligent in cleaning as the women, so over a period of time, the men all gravitated towards the Ladies Room, and the star symbol became a thing of the past.

Historically Cloudcroft’s industry is tourism and lumber.  Years ago, the Cloud Climbing Railroad made its way up here, and brought tourists who were excited to escape the heat of the lower 

elevations.

Our first hike was relatively short at just over 3.5 miles.  We hiked to the Mexican Canyon Trestle (seen in the picture above). 
Built in 1889, it carried passengers up the mountain to Cloudcroft. There is a hidden speaker near the trestle that periodically plays the sound of a train.  Kinda freaked us out because the trestle doesn’t have tracks on either side anymore.

  The hike, although short, was tiring because we aren’t used to the 9000 ft elevation.

To Be Continued…..