Our reservation was up at Brantley Lake SP, and we were very ready to move on. We had most things put away yesterday, so we were close to ready this morning.
We had finally made the decision that our next destination would be Oliver Lee Memorial State Park in Alamogordo, New Mexico. So our drive today took us North on Hwy 285 to Artesia, then West on Hwy 80 through Cloudcroft to Alamogordo. We had no idea that Hwy 80 would be such a beautiful drive!
This road took us through Desert, Ranches, Forests, Rock Tunnels... We climbed to 8800 ft at Cloudcroft, then down again to under 4000 ft. Cloudcroft appears to be a small Ski Resort town.
Oliver Lee State Park is 12 miles South of Alamogordo, then 4 miles East on Dog Canyon Rd. We arrived at 3:30 (it was a slow drive).
The park has only 16 electric sites, and not very large sites. There were only three available... one was way too small... one had a broken water faucet, and the other was a "handicap" site. Since Jeff has a "handicap" permit that hasn't expired from his full knee replacement... we took the handicap site. Besides being a lot bigger, it isn't really any different than other sites. We wouldn't normally take one these sites, but what are we to do? We asked about it, and they gave us the ok!
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| Our back window view |
We are beside the Sacramento Mountains
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| Our front door View |
There is a steep 6 mile trail into the Sacramento Mountains that we will check into tomorrow, but I dont know...
There have been some ground explosions as we sit here tonight... we dont know what they are, but hopefully they wont continue and we can find out what they were or are. The White Sands Missile Range is only 15 miles away, could it be they are doing something there? Hmmm.
Oliver Lee was one of our favorite stops last season. Sounds like the maintenance issues continue though. When we were there last year, some of their electric sites were closed because of the leaking faucets. If you can, take the hike up to the cabin. The trail goes further but just hiking to the Line Cabin is a really great hike. Just take plenty of water and stop often to rest. Enjoy your stay!
ReplyDeleteJohn
relaxedrush.blogspot.com
This site is beautiful! It looks like you were set down in the middle of a western movie set. Yahoo!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful view.
ReplyDeleteI am sure it is the Missle Range...We loved the drive up to Cloudcroft. Stay safe and have fun up there. Loved all the pictures today.
ReplyDeleteLooked like a beautiful drive in the mountains, i miss the mountains and trees!
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