Camping @ Cloudcroft

The week after Grandma Karen was here Andy had the week off work. We didn't do our normal long road trip this summer because we already moved to Las Cruces and Andy was tired of driving, so I decided we would just go camping for a few days at a place near our house. Cloudcroft is only 1.5 hours away, so we headed up there Wednesday-Saturday.

The campsites are all first-come, first-served and the campgrounds are only allowed to run at 50% capacity because of Covid, so we made sure to go early to get a spot. It was a close one - they were almost all full already! We ended up getting the last spot in our campground, but it was great. There was nobody else anywhere near us since the other sites were roped off, and we were right across from the bathroom.

The kiddos all pitched in to help Andy set up the tent.

It was so pretty up there! It's hard to believe that we lived in the middle of a desert but you can drive 90 minutes and be up in the pine tree covered mountains. It makes my heart happy!

They didn't have any wood for sale because their shipment hadn't come in, so we just gathered wood from around the campground. It was clear that were in the process of removing dead trees, and there were chunks of wood everywhere. Ally became quite the mountain woman and found all sorts of logs. There was a "Nature Trail" (legit, that's what it was called, I didn't even have to fib to the kids this time!) that went around our whole campground. It was .6 miles long and the kids did it 2x per day on all the days we were there. The very first time, Ally started collecting sticks/logs as soon as we started. About half way through I could tell they were getting heavy because she had a huge armload and she kept having to readjust them to add more that she found. I suggested she could put them down and find some closer to camp, but she thought those ones were perfect, so she carried them all the way back to camp. She actually decided that all people should just camp for their whole lives. Who needs houses!?

Thursday morning we went on a trail that had nice views of White Sands.

Then we stopped and looked at this old train trestle, and read the signs about the train that used to come from Alamogordo up to Cloudcroft, and how many trestles there were, etc. It was pretty interesting.

We spent a lot of relaxing time lounging around the campfire.

We also made s'mores every night (except the last night, because it rained!).

On Friday morning we went to a trail called Bridal Veil Falls (not the one in Utah!).

We passed another old train trestle.

There were a few abandoned houses/cabins up there. It makes me wonder what happened? Why were they abandoned? When did someone just decide to give up and stop caring for their property? It's kind of sad.

As we were hiking up we passed some older folks coming out and they asked us if we knew about the "new trail" that is WAY shorter to get to Bridal Veil Falls. Uh, nope! This one was long, and Andy was thinking that making the kids hike all the way back when we were done was going to be super fun. The old folks told us where to go and we figured we'd give it a try.

There actually was a little waterfall at this one, which is crazy because the hike out there was ALL desert. It didn't seem like we were anywhere near a place where a waterfall might be, but the suddenly you come around a bend and this little oasis is there.

After we were done at the waterfall we headed out on the trail we thought was the shorter one. I could see our dot on what looked like a little dirt road on google maps, so we figured it was fine. Ultimately we ended up at the parking lot but we were behind a locked gate with a barbed wire fence and the actual trail head was on the opposite side of the parking lot...so clearly the dirt road wasn't quite where we were supposed to be. BUT...it was fine! We carefully climbed through the barbed wire fence. Then we just had to walk up the road about 1/2 mile to where we had parked the truck. It was sooo much shorter and easier than walking back out on the trail we came in on!

Later that afternoon we drove up another road just to see some scenery. There were a few little overlooks that we stopped at, and it was so pretty!

On our way back to camp we saw these black clouds right over where our campground was. Yikes!

It ended up being rainy with hail, but we just made a run for the tent and hung out there for a while. Once the downpour was done we pulled out the camp stove and made some dinner, after which Andy spent an incredibly long amount of time attempting to build a fire with our soaking wet wood. He was determined to get it though, and eventually he did. Our chairs were soaked, so we sat around on little tiny rocks trying to glean some warmth from the fire before we went to bed.

In the end even Andy admitted it was a fun trip. He doesn't love camping, but there's just something so relaxing about being away from electronics and distractions and spending time out in nature. Skyler decided that all food tastes better when you're camping as well. We can't wait to go again!

 

We love Visitors!

In mid-July Grandma Karen came down to visit us for a week. While she was here we took the kids on a couple of **cough** Nature Walks **cough, cough**. The H-word tends to give them anxiety, so we just don't call it that. They're not fooled by the term Nature Walk, either.

The first place we went was called Dripping Springs and it's at the Organ Mountain Desert National Monument, which is about 1/2 hour away from our house.

About 100 years ago there was a resort there, so people would travel up to relax and get out of the sunshine for a few days. Now the hotel is just a ruin. I love old things like this. You can try to imagine what it was like back when it was new and fancy.

Also our house started getting framed while grandma was here.

The next Nature Walk we took was at the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Park. When we arrived the gate was locked, so we called the number and they said "Oh yeah, it should be open. We'll send someone out to open it." Meanwhile we decided to just park on the road and walk in. It turned out to be pretty far and the kids weren't pleased. We saw a bunch of cool cacti, though!

Out in the desert in the middle of nowhere there was this amphitheater. I'm not sure what it's used for, but it must be a good place for one because when Karen, Ally, and I headed up a trail to the top of a big hill, Skyler, Kylee, and Colby sat down there (you can see them really tiny in the photo below), and apparently they could hear us talking the whole time, clear as day. We never heard them at all.

We got some windows!

The final Nature Walk we did was called Pine Tree Trail, and it was in a different part of the National Monument. This tarantula (look close - he's HUGE!) scared the pants off me, but eventually he crawled off the trail and I was able to hustle past. It was a near-death experience. I might have almost shed some tears.

Colby loved the first part of this trail because there were huge boulders to climb up.

We could see all the way across the valley towards Alamogordo, including the missile range in the desert out there, and White Sands National Park. It was really pretty.

My GPS somehow got confused and thought we still had a 1/2 mile to go before the halfway point, so the kids were SUPER HAPPY when we made it to the top sooner than I had said.

The second half was all back downhill, so the kiddos were pleased about that. Colby thought he wanted me to carry him, but after about 1/4 mile I told him he was too heavy. He ended up running down most of the last mile with me and Skyler because he wanted to stay ahead of "the girls". Anytime he heard their voices he'd take off running even faster. Great way to give him a second wind!

The whole trail is 4 miles, and these kiddos overall did a great job. Though when we were done their question was "what was the point of that hike? We didn't SEE anything!" I tried to explain that the point is just to go up the mountain and see nice views. They thought that probably wasn't worth it.

At the end of the week our friends the Wells from Carlsbad came to visit as well. We all headed back up to the Dripping Springs area to do a really short (like 1/2 mile) walk called La Cueva.

Basically there's this little tiny cave in the rock and they have signs telling you the story of a man who lived there long ago, who was murdered in the cave. People used to bring their sick friends and family up there because he was kind of like a medicine man. His friends down in the city were worried about him living up there alone, so he would light a fire outside the cave every so often so they'd know he was okay. One night the fire wasn't lit, so they came up to check and found him stabbed in the back. I don't think they ever found who did it. How sad! But also, can you imagine living in this tiny cave for months? Yikes.

We love visitors! It's always so fun to have other people to talk to and go exploring with!