Green Forests, White Sands, & Red Canyons
Posted on Mon 10 April 2023 in Travel Log
Lincoln National Forest
I packed up and left Roswell and headed west towards Alamogordo. I drove into Lincoln National Forest, passing through Mayhill and Cloudcroft. In High Rolls, I took a left on Forest service road 90, and steadily crept up the dirt road until I reached a pull-off. To the north, there were views of Sierra Blanca Peak covered in snow, which sits at almost 12,000 feet. To the west, there were views of dunes at White Sands. The scenery was breathtaking, and the stargazing was some of the best I've seen. The 4 mile ride up and down the mountain started to feel like my driveway after being there for almost 2 weeks.
Alamogordo & Cloudcroft
Alamogordo was a 25 minute drive down the mountain, and Cloudcroft was only 20 minutes further up the mountain. Cloudcroft is a cool ski village settled up in the mountains. There were many small shops and stores, including a craft brewery and pizza joint, and outdoor outfitter, and multiple BBQ restaurants. Alamogordo is a bigger town that has groceries, a Wal-Mart, water supply stations, and all the amenities for restocking.
White Sands National Park
We met up with Kelsey's friends from El Paso. On Friday we went to White Sands, hiked around the dunes, did some sand sledding, and drove on the Gypsum road out to a picnic area. Saturday we went for a hike to see a waterfall in the bottom of a canyon, then walked around the shops in Cloudcroft.
I waxed the bottom of a sled, and with a little momentum got a good run down the dunes, Clark Griswold style.
Dog Canyon BLM
I finally ran out of resources sitting on top of the mountain, so I had to move down to resupply water and empty tanks. I landed at another BLM campground south of Alamogordo right outside Oliver Lee Memorial State Park.
