Last Days in Cloudcroft, NM, Wednesdy - Saturday, June 26 - 29, 2019

One afternoon, we were out for a walk and saw this sign on a pipe for telephone wires.

Patty posed as if holding the reins for this horse painted on one of the dumpsters.

Besides two gun stores, lots of pickup trucks and ATVs, there are also a lot of artists and stores with crafts.  Off the Beaten Path is just one of many in the downtown area, and it even has a Pride Flag this month.

The town of Cloudcroft has Independence Day activities on both the weekend before and the weekend after the 4th.   On Saturday, there was a street dance from 7:00 - 11:00 in the evening with live music - I could not hear it from inside our house, but when I took the dog out I could just barely hear the band.  But earlier, they had the Independence Day Parade at 4:00.  I made a trip to the store just before 4:00 and came across George and his camel Matilda, both with flags for the holiday parade.

To see a video of George riding Matilda in White Sands National Park click here.

The parade went from the schools on the main highway, Route 82, then right for a block to Burro Street, the up Burro Street to the library.  It was typical small town parade but several hundred spectators turned out to watch. 

And so our time in Cloudcroft has come to an end.  It was nice to be in the mountains, delightful weather, peace and quiet, and comfortable rental home for the month.

White Sands National Monument, Tuesday, June 25, 2019

We did not need a lot of food from the commissary at Holoman AFB today, so we drove the ten miles beyond the base to White Sands National Monument.  There are several places to hike and we chose the Dune Life Nature Trail.  The trail head includes a thermometer so you can see how hot it is before you begin to hike.  There were also multiple warnings on multiple signs about heat, water and not getting lost.

There were several yuccas that were in bloom and/or with seed pods.

About every 200 yards, there are informational signs in both English and Spanish.

The white sand is actually gypsum.  White Sands National Monument is in the Tularosa basin, as are Alamagordo, Holloman AFB, White Sands Missile Range and the surrounding region.  Gypsum and other minerals wash out of the rocks in the San Andres mountains to the west and the Sacramento mountains to the east.  While rain flows into the Tularosa basin, there are no rivers flowing out.  So water just evaporates and the most abundant residue is the gypsum which packs into layers (Patty is looking at a spot where the layers are exposed) and which has always moving loose white sand on top.  These layers also hold water so there are plants able to grow in the dunes.

Because of the moisture below the sand, you will see plants like this Rio Grande Cottonwood growing in a sand dune.

But if too much sand shifts preventing access to the subterranean moisture, the cottonwood tree will die.

After the hike, we drove the road into the dunes.  There were dozens of large parking areas as apparently, one of the big winter events here is sliding and snowboarding on the dunes.  There were even people out sliding in the summer.  There are so many parking lots and so many people during the winter that alcohol is prohibited in the park Feb. 1 - May 31 each year.

 

The website warns that the last three miles of the road is not paved and to watch closely where you drive, as the sands are constantly shifting.  It was a washboard road, much as we experienced when we lived in Westford, VT - the big difference is that it was completely flat.  Instead of snow banks on both sides of the road, it was sand banks.  For a couple of miles, we even followed a large bucket loader that was pushing the sand to the side, on both the unpaved and paved sections of the road.

Once we got to the visitor center, we saw a lot of native art and jewelry for sale as well as the sleds for sale - we used to call them flying saucers when we were kids and used them on the snow in New England, but here they are called sleds or sand disks.

In the small area where they have educational materials, we learned about the plants and animals that evolved to adapt in the White Sands - outside of the park, the earless lizard is brown, but inside the park, he is nearly white and we saw them earlier on our hike.

We then went to Holloman AFB and had lunch at the Subway in the food court at the BX and made a quick foray into the commissary for four items (rather than a full shopping cart as in the past weeks).  On the way up the mountain into Cloudcroft, we stopped at the Mexican Canyon Trestle Vista.  The day before, I had hiked in to the far end of the trestle.  You can only view the trestle from here, no hiking to it from this end.

This is where I had hiked the day before - see the post for June 24, 2019 to see the photos from this end

Mexican Canyon Trestle Trail, Monday, June 24, 2019

This morning, I went by myself to hike to the Mexican Canyon Trestle Trail.  I stopped at the Trestle Recreation Area and read again about the amazing work building the train tracks in 1898 - 1900 that went from 4,300 feet elevation in Alamagordo to 8,600 feet in Cloudcroft, and then on for several more miles to access the trees in the San Francisco Mountains.

From the Recreation area, the trail goes downhill for about a quarter of a mile to reach the old railroad bed.  As you might imagine, the railroad bed is relatively wide with a slow incline and long, easy curves to accommodate a train.  After about another quarter of a mile, the trail on the road bed comes to private property - this is where Patty and I had turned around on a prior hike.

I did not see any wildlife except birds and butterflies - I came across this one on the trail.

From the private property gate, the trail then goes down, across and back up to get to the rail bed on the other side of the private property.  This includes many switchbacks and benches to catch your breath on the hillside.

 

Once back on the other side of the private property, there is no gate, just a sign.

 Then an eighth of a mile brings you to the Mexican Canyon Trestle Overlook. 

On the other side, still further downhill, is the overlook from the highway that looks up to the trestle.

Just to the left of the overlook, is a stand of New Mexico Mountain Laurel trees, with some of the small white and pink flowers still present.

I left the overlook and headed back uphill on the old rail bed until I came to the private property, then back down, around and back up to the old rail bed.

I continued uphill on the rail bed until I came to the collapsed "S" Trestle overlook.

Then it was down stairs to the collapsed trestle.

Then past all of the collapsed trestle.

Then it was back up stairs to the old trail bed - the "S" Trestle took the train across this gash in the hill side.

Then it was back on the old rail bed for another half mile.  I did not take many photos here, as while the trail was as wide as the rail bed with gentle curves and slow, gentle incline, there were no guard rails and this section had a really steep drop off down into the valley - the steepest I had yet seen.

After a quick half mile on the rail bed, the trail takes a sharp left uphill to the recreation area and then it was back through town to our rental - a pleasant five mile hike.