Alamogordo New Mexico - Valley of Fire Recreation Area , Cloudcroft and White Sands NM Nov 14 - 16

Monday morning we we out the door just before 9 am and headed up Highway 74 to Valley of Fire Recreation Area (BLM). Kind of a boring straight drive for an hour. Once there though what a nice walk we had on their nature trail on top of the lava flows. Iit's good to know that we will definitely fit in the campsite should we visit this area another time. They have a bunch of sites with water and power (14) for $18/night, and a bunch of dry camping spots as well as tent sites. They even have showers available.

Valley of Fires recreation area is located immediately adjacent to the Malpais Lava Flow. Approximately 5,000 years ago, Little Black Peak erupted and flowed 44 miles into the Tularosa Basin, filling the basin with molten rock. The resulting lava flow is four to six miles wide, 160 feet thick and covers 125 square miles. The lava flow is considered to be one of the youngest lava flows in the continental United States.

There is lots of vegetation here as the lava is non-pourous and holds water for the plants to grow.

From a distance, Valley of Fires appears as barren rock but when you walk through the nature trail there are many varieties of flowers, cactus, trees and bushes typical of the Chihuahuan desert. Animals include bats, roadrunners, quail, cottontails, mule deer, barberry sheep, and lizards. It's also a virtual birdwatcher's paradise with great horned owls, burrowing owls, turkey vultures, hawks, gnat catchers, cactus wrens, sparrows and golden eagles.

We only saw a few little birds today as it was so cold out at 45F only. Thankfully no rattlers or bats this time of year either. They go into the lava tubes to wait out the heat of the day. The paved nature walk is about 2/3 of a mile long and wheelchair accessible. Ray had great fun taking pictures of the different textures in the lava.

Birthday Boy!

Look at all the different colours of the lichen.

The path back up to the campsite.

The lava flow is one of the longest known that has erupted on Earth in the past 10,000 years. It achieved its great length by flowing in insulated lava tubes. Carrizozo Malpais is the local name, which roughly translates to “bad footing” in Spanish, and describes the difficulty of traversing the area.

We enjoyed our hour's walk through the lava field.  A great outing. Now for the hours drive home.

Tuesday, November 15th. Happy Birthday Ray!

We had a lazy morning before heading up the mountain to Cloudcroft at an elevation of 8700 feet. It's cold down here in Alamogordo (4300) so we will definitely have to bundle up. Today was the day to go as there could be snow tonight and into tomorrow up there!

We noticed on the drive up highway 82 most of the scenic viewpoints were on the other side of the highway so we would stop on our way down, the sun would be in a better spot too.

Driving up our first stop was the Mexican Trestle Bridge just before Cloudcroft.

Ray and I had wondered what the old beehive burner and derilict building was down here in Alamogordo and he was told from the guys at the Toy Museum that the plant used to process 1 Billion board feet of timber a year from the Cloudcroft area.

You can see the white sand dunes in the distance.

Continuing on we drove past Cloudcroft hoping to see some more views and went as far as their ski hill. Boy not very big and of course with no snow looks pretty sparse right now. Apparently they do summer tubing there. Here are a couple of pics from Google.

What it should look like soon.

We drove back into town and found Burro Street which is the "tourist" portion of the town. One of the shopkeepers told us that they are packed at Thanksgiving as a lot of people have vacation homes here. After Thanksgiving it's quiet until the snow flies.

We found a bakery so Ray and I had coffee and treat for breakfast.

Birthday boy with his huge cinnamon bun.

Back in the car for a quick trip up to the "Lodge" at the golf resort.

Back down Highway 82 we went and this time stopped several times at the pullouts for some views. This tunnel is the only car tunnel in the whole of New Mexico built in 1949 that you go through up to Cloudcroft.

Then Ray spied a road up a hill along side the "run away lane" ! He had me drive up and up. It turned out to be really rough and was a road to the powerlines. Fine if we had a 4x4 jeep but not our car. I drove about 1/3 of the way up the road and then we walked for a bit. Realizing that it was a long way to the top we turned around. That Ray! The views were great though.

You can see our car down the hill.

Back to town it was time for lunch. We went to a wine and bistro place as they were supposed to have steak and that's what Ray wanted for his birthday. Turned out their google post was incorrect and they had switched the menu. Of course we did not find this out until I was served my flight of wines ... 

We ended up having an appetizer and then headed out to another restaurant that was a steak house. Ray was a happy camper with a 10 oz Ribeye.

After lunch I went for my pedicure while Ray was able to get the car into a carwash. It sure was filthy from our travels again.

Ray dropped me back off at the coach and he headed out at 3:45 to White Sand Dunes National Monument to finally get his sunset pictures. The sun sets here just after 5 pm so he wanted to find his "spots" so he'd be ready. Here are some of the pictures he took, gorgeous.

This is not a rock. A few shrubs like skunkbush sumac grow dense, deep roots that help form a pediestal after the dune moves on. Kit foxes dig their dens in pedestals; other animals find shelter in these as well. This one has died off on top just leaving the pedestal.

This picture below is one of Ray's favourite with everything white.

Wednesday morning we did wake up to a cloudy day, good thing we have finished our touring. It is also cold out at 49F at 10 am, especially with no sun shining. Today is the last day here so it's a cleanup day. We have enjoyed our stay here. Decided on an early dinner so I could roast a whole chicken on their barbecue.  Although it was only 50F outside, Ray and I had a final campfire while the chicken was cooking. Dinner was served at 3:30 pm. lol Time to come in as the wind had picked up. Burrrrr Time to get somewhere warmer.

PS. Woke up Thursday morning to the coldest yet ... 25F! Good thing Ray unhooks our hose at night.