Cloudcroft, New Mexico - Elevation 8700 Feet

On Saturday we visited Cloudcroft, New Mexico, a small resort village located in the Sacramento Mountains at an elevation of about 8700 feet.  It was 70 degrees in the desert when we left and 40 degrees at Cloudcroft when we got there.   The town has many shops and is located in the Lincoln National Forest which has many hiking trails mainly on the old rail bed of the El Paso and Northeastern Railroad built in the late 1800's.

The Downtown Area

Donna, Darby and an 8 foot wooden Indian

We hiked one of the trails to one of the many railroad trestle bridges.  We only went two miles but it seemed like five at the 8700 foot altitude.

View from the trail - the white near the center of the image is White Sands 4400 feet below (the White Sands are at 4300 feet elevation) and about 30 miles away.

One of the unique bridges on the railroad route

The bridge collapsed in 1960 - this is what is left

Three Rivers Petroglyph Site - Lincoln National Forest

Yesterday we went to the Three Rivers petroglyph site which is located in Three Rivers, New Mexico, about 20 miles north of where we are staying.  The petroglyphs are attributed to the Jornada Mogollon people approximately 800 to 1000 years ago.  There are over 21,000 petroglyphs at this site. 

Circle and dot motif - very common at this site - no one is sure exactly what they represent. 

Lots of drawings represent wildlife

This is the most famous petroglyph at this site - bighorn sheep pierced with three arrows

Masked figure with corn stalk

Panoramic view from the petroglyph site - Sierra Blanca peak in center, the snow capped mountain (click to enlarge)

Close-up of same view

Adjacent to the petroglyph site are remains of the Mogollon village 

Remains of a pit house

Remains of another structure

Remains of an adobe structure

Dogs are not allowed at the petroglyph site so when we finished there we went further up the road into the Lincoln National Forest and took Darby on a hike.  This is at about 6000 or 7000 foot elevation and is a totally different landscape than that of the desert below - lots of tall trees, hills, water in the creeks and much cooler.  We did see a couple of mule deer on the hike but didn't get any pictures.

The start of our hike.