We drove out today with the intention to see what there was to see in Cloudcroft, and possibly to drive to Ruidoso.
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| There was a marker for Mexican Canyon Trestle on the map, so we drove a short way toward Alamogordo to the pull off where there was information about the railway that used to come up to Cloudcroft. The thing that immediately caught our attention was something that looked like clouds below us in the distance, but which, in fact, was White Sands down below us. |
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| Another view of the "clouds" below us with my honey taking a picture of the railroad trestle. |
Information boards told us:
A Getaway into the Clouds
Passenger trips began in 1899, delivering people from Alamogordo to the town of Cloudcroft. Cost of a round trip ticket was three dollars. Seeking relief from the heat, tourists would spend weekends in the serene and cool mountains. Mexican Canyon Trestle was one of the many trestles carrying passengers, and although the trip may have been frightening, no one was ever hurt.
An excursion car, built in Alamogordo and called a Bailey-Claire, was about the size of a boxcar and open on each side. Each car could comfortably hold forty-five passengers but on holidays such as July 4th, when a regular passenger car was often added, as many as six hundred passengers squeezed into and on top of the trains.
Restoring a Local Treasure
The Mexican Canyon Trestle was restored in 2009-2010. Over 420 timbers were replaced and large sections of the trestle were rebuilt. The US Forest Service, New Mexico Rails-to-Trails and local efforts continue to preserve this treasure.
The Mexican Canyon Trestle, built in in 1899, is 323 feet long and 60 feet high. It was abandoned on September 12, 1947. Of the 58 timber frame trestles along the "Cloud-Climbing Railroad", this trestle is the last that remains standing.
Engineering studies began in 1989, and through the efforts of volunteers, organizations, agencies, and New Mexico Congressman Stevan Pearce, restoration started in 2009. In 2010, the trestle again looked as it had during Southern Pacific ownership in 1937-1947.
A Mountain Excursion
With the railroad, came people searching for respite in the cool, clean air of the mountains.
The climate and elevation of the Sacramento Mountains attracted people who were ailing from various maladies, including tuberculosis. In 1911, a baby sanitorium opened its doors to sick children, many of whom lived in El Paso and needed to escape the summer heat. Nicknamed the Baby San, many generous donors provided assistance to those who could not afford the expense on their own. After treating hundreds of sick children, the Baby San closed in the 1940s when the tuberculosis epidemic began to wane.
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| The rebuilt trestle. Even though the signboards indicated that the "Rails-to-Trails" program was one of the contributors to the restoration, it is not accessible to walk across (i.e. the "Trails" part doesn't seem to have applied!). Looking at that trestle, and thinking about the passenger cars being boxcars without sides... I think it would be pretty scary to have taken the rail trip from Alamogordo to Cloudcroft! |
Our next stop was to look at some National Forest campgrounds in this area. When we were contemplating coming up to this area to escape the heat of the lower elevations, I looked at National Forest campgrounds to see if there might be a place where we could stay. Almost all of the campgrounds indicated that they were limited to lengths shorter than Miss Doozie (some as short as 16', others might be as long as 40', but nothing that indicated allowing 43' which is how long Miss Doozie is).
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| The only one that seemed to indicate that it could accommodate RVs of
any size was the Silver Overflow campground, so I wanted to go by there
and see what it was like. The satellite view from Google-maps made it
look like a big open space, so I couldn't fathom how it had a "Number of
Units Available" of 52. (Note: Upper Karr Canyon has a limit of 16', and I couldn't find a listing for Lower Karr Canyon.) |
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| Well, sure enough, it is just a big open asphalt lot. Along two of the sides, there are a few spaces marked (4-5 on one side, and 6-7 on the other) with a few picnic tables (like one for every other marked space - you might be able to detect one of the picnic tables in this picture), and then a big open area in the middle. I guess a lot of RVs *could* park there... |
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| A view from the end back toward the bathhouse area. |
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| The bathhouse has a big sign indicating "Hot Showers"! |
Further down the same road were the Apache, Saddle, and Silver campgrounds. We drove around all of the loops, and honestly thought that there were spots there that could accommodate Miss Doozie, and there were definitely motorhomes in there that were in the 38-40' range, not under 30' as the table that I pasted above suggests is the maximum.
The sites in Silver Overflow are $16/night ($8 with Senior Access pass) and the other campground sites are $20/night ($10 with Senior Access pass) for boondocking - no hookups. There is a place where you can get water and a single dump station for all of those sites. I wouldn't like to see the lineup that might result at the dump station at the end of a holiday weekend!
We decided to continue across route 244 through the Mescalero Reservation to Ruidoso. Along the way, we saw what we think are wild horses...
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| The area where they were feeding was a very wet/swampy area by the side of the road. |
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| I tried to find additional information about these horses. It seems that they are not considered to be mustangs but rather are escapees from the Mescalero Apache Reservation and considered by some to be menaces. |
Route 244 came to an end at US 70 and within a short distance on US 70 we saw a high mountain in front of us...
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| this signboard was at the side of the road. I have no idea what the sentence that begins "Vertical geologic movement..." is telling me! And, I have no idea what the "Elevation 4670 feet" means - we were at about 6700' at the location of this sign. Shall I just comment that most of this sign was more confusing than helpful? |
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| Sierra Blanca from US70 |
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| Another view of Sierra Blanca |
We drove on in to Ruidoso. Dwayne remembers his mother talking about coming to Ruidoso and believes that he came here with his parents when he was very small, but we didn't see anything that he remembered! It is a ski town, so at this time of year, not so very busy - lots of touristy shops.
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| I saw this sign at the NAPA / Western Auto store in Ruidoso - glad that we don't need tire chains at this time of year! |
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| We had stopped at a bakery in Cloudcroft in the morning - since they were closed on Sunday, they did not have any breads available when we got there, but indicated that they would later in the day, so we stopped back by there on our way back to the campground. We got a loaf of Pistachio Bread - I had never heard of Pistachio Bread before - but it is like a nut bread (of course!) - sweet and very delicious. They had this sign on their wall which I thought was cute! |
We had a nice day driving around the area. We are thinking that we will drive down to Alamogordo on another day - the route from Cloudcroft to Alamogordo is supposed to be quite hairy (similar to the route that the train tracks took) and we'd like to drive it in the Jeep - not in Miss Doozie!
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