10 days in a hotel with not much to do, two kids and a dog. I'm going insane. That's our life as we wait to move into our new rental home here in El Paso. Now that the dust has settled on the chaos of finding a house we decided to take a day trip on Monday up to the cool, New Mexican mountains.
Cloud Croft, New Mexico is about 100 miles northeast on Highway 54. The drive was through the serene flat desert with rugged mountains along the horizons. Countless miles of Fort Bliss artillery ranges stretched out along the eastern side of the road. Once you past the town of Alamogordo the mountains begin to climb and you leave the desert behind for the cool, piney mountain air of Lincoln National Forest.
From the lookouts in the forest you can actually see White Sands National Monument which was formed from gypsum deposits from the mountains. It's an odd thing to in the desert one minute and amongst pine trees just a few miles later. The air smelled amazing and it was only 70 degrees! It was 100 back in El Paso.
El Paso sits at about 4000 feet about sea level and Cloud Croft is at 8600 feet. I was definitely feeling the effects of the altitude and not drinking enough water by the afternoon.
Laura completed her very first hike all by herself and we were very proud (and relieved we didn't have to carry her) We hiked the Osha trail for about 1.5 miles while Daniel napped in the Ergo.
Next we drove further into the forest looking for a trail I had found online. We got lost so we stopped at the rangers station for a map with directions. Unfortunately, we turned the wrong way out of the rangers station but after about 5 minutes realized we were going to wrong way. The drive was gorgeous and the kids weren't crying so I didn't mind being lost too much. David called it "car hiking." That's where you see beautiful scenery from the car.
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| I just love a man babywearing |
We finally made it down a long dirt road to Bluff Springs and it was well worth the trip. There was a small stream at the bottom of the creek. The kids wadded in the freezing water for over an hour and Daniel especially was in heaven. This boy goes crazy for all thing "wa-wa" We were even brave enough to let Lilly off her leash. She was a good girl and did some exploring but quickly came back to us. Long hair dogs and thick grass don't mix and I'm still working on getting burs out of her tail!
As the afternoon clouds rolled in for a rain shower we pilled back into the trusty Honda Odyssey and headed "home" (to the hotel that it).
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| Little D is saying cheese here |
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| Credit to David for this shot of the valley |
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| Even Lilly got in on the fun of the stream |
