The McCarthy Rents Visit

Sometime around Valentine's Day, Andrew's parents paid us a visit and Andrew had some fun plans drawn up.  Mary had school, so we were unable to join the first part of their trip to Carlsbad Caverns, but we've been there before so I didn't feel slighted.

Our first stop was Cloudcroft and we arrived there Thursday evening.  Apparently, Cloudcroft has a webcam (www.cloudcroftwebcam.com).

Cloudcroft is a small mountain town in New Mexico, nestled in the northern area of the Lincoln National Forest, in the Sacramento Mountains.  We camped out here in the fall of 2010 and I was excited to return as it's a beautiful place to be; tall pine trees, meandering streams, bright green grass and, despite the obvious signs of tourism, a "small town" feel that time and popularity has stripped from the nearby Ruidoso.

I was also excited that this trip would be slightly fancier than our 6x6 tent; we would be staying at The Lodge Resort and Spa.  I still get excited about staying in hotels.  We're usually too cheap for anything more comfortable than a tent or a Drury Inn and I am not terribly fussy about accommodation, except for my "no creepy outside doors" rule. 

After eating at "Big Daddy's"...

..Mary and I checked in to the lodge, found our two rooms, and decided to leave the nicest room for Andrew's parents.  Unfortunately, this meant our room was directly above theirs and they heard the play fighting and bed-jumping shenanigans that went on in our room.  Hopefully, the gesture was not completely lost.

 

The lodge itself was originally built in 1899 and then destroyed by fire in 1909.  The reception area boasts old newspaper clippings and photographs documenting the disaster.  It was rebuilt and the current building dates to 1911, although it has been renovated over time. 



 



You must ask for the key, but the tower is still available to admire the surrounding views and we made it just in time for sunset.

 

 

The Osha Trail is a little over 2 miles long and takes a loop with amazing views of the White Sands area over to the west.  Naturally, I packed sandals for Mary, so we did a u-turn when the snow became too deep, yet we somehow managed to get lost in the woods and took almost as long getting back to the car as the properly-clad McCarthys.

 

Down towards Alamogordo

 

It was time to head down the mountains to the west and into the Tularosa Basin to check out the White Sands National Monument.  It looks pretty impressive from a distance and I had never been.

 

 

Plus, being a national park, it offered Mary another opportunity to earn a Junior Ranger Badge.  A business she takes very seriously.

 



 

 

The White Sands boasts itself as one of the world's greatest wonders and it is pretty astounding.  Over 270 square miles of gypsum covered desert.  Walking over the dunes, you expect to catch a glimpse of the ocean in the distance, not the mountainous backdrop.  Just hours earlier, we had walked in a foot of snow, and now we were shedding layers.



 

As any good ranger does, Mary identified several animal prints in the sand.

lizard and pocket mouse woz ere



 

 

Another "natural wonder" is the Valley of Fires; the Malpais Lava Flow, dating back around 5000 years.  This lava flow covers 125 miles (I'm totally googling this, I have no idea how big it is) and originates from the Little Black Peak (I knew that part!).  In the photo below, you can definitely see the outline of the flow.  Closer up, it looks more like a garden.

 

 

 

We found lots of pahoehoe lava, but I had a hard time finding any a'a lava.  Given my history on rock identification, this did not surprise me and I'm sure I was walking on it the whole time.

Cheese!

 

Three Rivers Petroglyphs site was advertised as one of the largest accessible petroglyph sites in the Southwest.  It was pretty cool, but once you've seen one petroglyph, you've probably seen enough.  Andrew also made a good point; about the same time the Jornada Mogollon people were scraping goats and geometric shapes into rocks, the ancient Egyptians were building pyramids, the Germans were making globes, and Da Vinci was drawing sketches of airplanes.  Meh.  It was, however, worth the visit.

  

 

       

 

The Sacramento Mountains, and maybe Sierra Blanca?

Andrew found a goat!

 

 

 

The consensus was that we should stay another full day and go on to El Paso to head up on the Wyler Aerial Tramway at the Franklin Mountains and then try Rudy's BBQ on recommendation from a friend who knows his Bar-B-Que.



 

The trip up on the tramway is quite daunting when you realize how far up you are and how you are simply balancing on a rope.  Looking down, you can vividly imagine how the car would hit and roll down the mountainside.



The views are quite spectacular and if you look hard enough, you can see the border to Mexico, defined by the curve of the Rio Grande.

On the other side of the border is Ciudad Juarez, a large Mexican city famous these days for its murder count.  Quite a shame; it would be great to hop across the border for some authentic cuisine but, from what I hear, it's simply too dangerous.  Hopefully in the future this will change.

 

We headed for home (via Rudy's BBQ; highly recommend).  The next day, we took the rents to Big Spring state park. 

I forget how nice this park is for a day visit.  We also visited the city park which is nice, as far as city parks go.  I made a mental note to visit the fun-looking water park when the days get warmer, and to check out what they have showing at the amphitheater.

Mary has callouses on her hands from doing this daily during recess at school.  She's a monkey!

 

 

In other February news...

 

 



Mary started tennis lessons. 

It was "peek week" at dance class

Valentine's parties!