Hey friends, welcome back to Grand Adventure!
I'm your host Marc Guido, and we're in the Sacramento Mountains of southern New
Mexico, high up at around 9,000 feet right outside of the town of Cloudcroft.
On this episode we're going to explore the outdoor recreation and camping
opportunities surrounding Cloudcroft, and also pay a visit to White Sands National
Monument right outside of the nearby town of Alamogordo, so stay tuned!
So before we get underway we want to let you know that this video is sponsored by
Dashlane. We'd like to send a huge "thank you" to Dashlane for helping to support
Grand Adventure! We'll tell you more about Dashlane later on in this video, but for
now let's get started! Cloudcroft is a 15-hour drive from Salt
Lake City, so we split the drive in two by stopping midway in Farmington, New
Mexico, where we spent the night in the brand-new Brown Springs Campground
opened this year by the BLM. This is a splendid 10-site dry campground right
on the outskirts of town. All sites feature gravel pads, a covered pavilion,
fire pit, concrete patio, and a grill. Our site included what we deemed to be a
fenced yard bounded on one side by an attractive retaining wall and the other
by a split rail fence. Best of all, overnight camping here is free! Just call
the BLM Farmington field office for a free camping permit. Given that our
alternative was the Farmington Wally World, we were thrilled with Brown
Springs Campground.
After crossing what seemed like endless empty desert, we're finally beginning our
lengthy climb into the Sacramento Mountains. Cloudcroft sits at an
elevation of 8,668 feet -- over 4,300 feet above the Tularosa Basin of the
Chihuahuan Desert below. In the 1890s the El Paso and Northeastern Railroad
arrived in the newly founded town of Alamogordo. Needing a steady supply of
timber to continue to the mining towns further north, a railroad survey crew
climbed into the Sacramento Mountains to determine the feasibility of extending a
line up to the summit to harvest the forests. The crew reported that not only
was it possible, that the area could attract visitors. The name Cloudcroft --
a pasture for the clouds -- was suggested. Work on the Alamogordo and Sacramento
Mountain Railway soon began. The logging industry surrounding Cloudcroft boomed
as the railroad was used to carry spruce and fir timber down to sawmills in
Alamogordo. Favorable newspaper reports, though, quickly made Cloudcroft a popular
tourism destination, as well a place to escape the desert heat much like we're
doing today.
With the advent of the automobile, the Alamogordo and Sacramento Mountain
Railway was abandoned after only half a century. The Lodge was built in
Cloudcroft around the turn of the century, and has hosted numerous famous
guests including Julie Garland, Clark Gable and Pancho Villa. In the
1930s it was managed by Conrad Hilton of Hilton Hotels fame. Even at this
southerly latitude, at this elevation it's actually possible to ski in winter.
Ski Cloudcroft is the second southernmost ski area in the US, only
behind Mount Lemmon near Tucson.
We're boondocking for the week along a forest road in the Lincoln National
Forest about two miles south of the village of Cloudcroft. This has been an
incredibly comfortable spot for us. We're in a peaceful forest, yet the amenities
of Cloudcroft are only two miles away, along with a Verizon cell tower
necessary for us to work during our visit. While it's in the 90s down in
Alamogordo, high temperatures are in the mid 60's up here. There are hiking
trails galore throughout the Lincoln National Forest.
These locals turned out to be our only neighbors.
For those adverse to boondocking there are several other options available in
the mountains around Cloudcroft. There are numerous Forest Service dry
campgrounds, although many of them are already closed for the season during our
mid-september visit.
There are also a number of small privately-run full-hookup RV parks
scattered throughout these hills.
Down below the Sacramento mountains in the Tularosa basin, the US tested the
world's first nuclear explosion in the Trinity Test of 1945. In addition to the
city of Alamogordo -- an epicenter of space research -- it's also home to Holloman Air
Force Base and White Sands National Monument. The National Monument comprises
the southern part of a 275-square mile field of white sand dunes composed of
gypsum crystals. The gypsum dune field is the largest of its kind on earth.
Designated a National Monument by President Herbert Hoover in 1933, popular
activities at White Sands include hiking, horseback riding, picnicking, backcountry
tent camping ... and, yes, sledding.
Now we told you earlier that we'd share a little bit more information about our
video sponsor Dashlane. Dashlane is a desktop and mobile app designed to make your
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that's like breaking into a bank but being unable to open any of the vaults.
Not even Dashlane has the keys. We've been using Dashlane while travelling
across the western US, and when we first signed up Dashlane automatically imported
all 975 of our existing passwords so we didn't have to enter each one manually.
Try Dashlane Premium free for 30 days by clicking on the link in the video
description below, and then get 10% off Dashlane Premium if you decide to upgrade
using my code GRANDADVENTURE. So we really hope that you've enjoyed coming
along with us to Cloudcroft, New Mexico, and nearby White Sands National Monument.
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