Dog Canyon Trail

Dog Canyon Trail is located in Oliver Lee State Park, just outside of town. At 11 miles and 3100 feet, it's the first real hiking I've done since last summer. Last week I ended up hiking 15 miles through the Lincoln National Forest up near Cloudcroft, but without much scenery or elevation gain it was more of a tranquil walk.

Dog Canyon

From the parking lot you see up into the canyon, the massive stone faces towering over you. Yet you don't realize you'll be hiking to the top of one of those rocks. In the East, most hikes are done through the forest so you don't see the elevation before you. The exception to this in my hiking experience was of course Tuckerman's Ravine up Mt. Washington in New Hampshire.

The treeless trail!

Frankly I've never liked trees much, the towering kind at least. I've always been in love with vast open spaces where the sun shines unconditionally. As a kid I dreamed of what the desert in Arizona would be like, hot and sandy, no trees. When I was a teenager I received a large cactus as I gift and I cherished it.

Looking down on Alamo

But as an adult I moved to Florida where there is plenty of sand and the palm trees provide little shade, and I soon forgot about the desert. Only as I was driving through Texas on my way to New Mexico did I remember this childhood fascination and all of those memories came back in a flood of excitement and curiosity.

Up close and personal to the canyon wall. Don't look down.

Hiking up the rocky terrain of the canyon to 7500 feet, with its unobstructed views of the city, canyon and mountains was a perfect desert experience. The climb was strenuous but the trails were easy to follow and not to technical.

The view only gets better

The first three miles climb steadily but slowly. In fact many people stop at three miles and turn around, for at this point the trail sweeps up around the ridge of the canyon on a narrow bed of loose rocks and continues this way to the top of the canyon, about 1.5 miles.

Around 4 miles, climbing this to the top? Nope, but that would have been cool.

Although you can see the canyon open up before you as you climb, you can only see the trail a few hundred feet in front of you so you don't actually know where it's taking you. You think you're headed to one side and before you know it the trail points the other direction.

The famous White Sands of Alamo in the distance

So when I reached what appeared to be the top of canyon, and I still had a mile to go, I thought there must be another stunning view ahead,even though all I saw was a grassy wilderness. Because trails don't end in the middle of nowhere. They end at mountain tops or roads, and I couldn't imagine a road running through here.

It was looking bleak, but with about a half mile to go the trail again ascended sharply and I saw blue sky up ahead. Yes, there was indeed a climax to this trail. But as I crested the hill, I saw only grass and trees marking the beginning of the Lincoln National Forest, and finally a sign indicating the trail's end. At a road. See, I was right about that.

View more photos

Aguirre Springs, Cloudcroft, etc

While waiting for the temperature to rise this morning I drove West on Hwy 70 toward Las Cruces up through the Organ Mountains and finally to San Augustin Pass, where you begin the descent into the city. On this stretch of highway is a beautiful, diverse landscape of white sands, a missile range and of course the stunning mountains.

Looking up from Aguirre Springs

Just below the pass is Aguirre Springs, a recreation area with camping, hiking trails and picnic areas. To get there you three miles down a paved path through the open desert terrain that provides a beautiful view of the mountains just above.

Back in Alamo it was getting warmer so I changed into hiking clothes and drove up to Cloudcroft, a mountain town 16 miles to the East. The road winds up 4000 ft through the canyons and rocky cliffs of the Sacramento mountains.

Canyon of the Sacramento Mountains

Cloudcroft sits at 8650 feet, and while the temperature didn't feel much colder, there was a few inches of snow on the ground and the trail I was going to take was closed. So I turned around and drove back down the mountain about a 1000 feet to the another trail head, which was open.

Didn't we leave winter behind?

The Switchback Trail is part of the Cloud Climbing Rail Trail, a converted rail trail that was constructed at the turn of the century to transport lumber from the Sacramento Mountains. Shaded parts are covered in snow, but most was gravel or grass and an easy 3.2 mile hike up 500 ft. 

Love the open trails without all the trees!

View more photos

Valley of the Fires

I knew it was going to be cold on Saturday and there was a chance of thunderstorms so instead of hiking I did a little sightseeing. About an hour North of Alamogordo, in a town called Carrizozo, are fields of lava.

Valley of the Fires Recreation Area

Over 45 miles and 165 feet thick, the lava originated from several nearby volcanoes and now resembles black rock overgrown with cactus and bushes. In Carrizozo is a recreation area where you can walk through the fields, but it was even colder and winder there and I wasn't about to get out of my car.

Mountains in the distance - these have snow, only an hour North of Alamogordo

The best views of the lava are not from the park, but from the side of the road a bit farther down. Unfortunately my camera died before I got there.

Heap o' lava

Later in the day, after I was back in the toasty camper, it snowed. Big wet flakes that didn't stick to the ground, but snow nonetheless. When I arrived here last Sunday it was as good as it gets - sunny, 80, dry. Tuesday a storm came through blowing sustained winds of 20mph, gusts much higher. So high in fact on Thursday the wind blew my camper about 15 feet into a barrier behind me. Now it is Sunday morning and the sun is just coming up. It's 30 degrees but it's supposed to reach 70 today. What a crazy place.

Alamogordo, New Mexico

Alamogordo, or "Alamo" as it's referred to by the locals, is located about 70 miles North of El Paso, Texas. It's the city center of the Tularosa Basin and is surrounded by the Organ, San Andres and Sacramento mountain ranges.

View from rear of campground in Alamogordo, NM

The majority of driving to New Mexico from Louisiana is in Texas, an 850 mile stretch along I-10 that provides a unique view of the state's dynamic geography. East of San Antonio is the standard shifting highway pattern of urban and rural areas. I had always wanted to visit San Antonio so I was pretty happy to be driving through it until my trailer tire blew on the busiest part of the highway. I had no spare, and AAA was having a tough time locating someone that would tow the camper. So instead I drove it, 15 miles per hour, for about seven miles to a discount tire shop. They even had the non-standard tire in stock, and I was back on the road within two hours.

Boot Hill RV Resort, where I am staying

West of San Antonio is, well, nothing until you reach El Paso. 550 miles of nothing but but a baron, stunning landscape of sand hills, desert valleys, desert grasslands and the Davis Mountains. It was incredible.

I hadn't yet booked a campground when I arrived in Alamo, but I had contacted a couple earlier in the week so I chose one, and it happened that they were expecting me. The campground is quite a bit out of town but is very quiet, save for the roosters that start their day at 5am. There's a horse stable right behind my camper that provides a nice odorous background, but the private bathrooms/showers are the cleanest I've seen yet.

Katie discovers a cactus!