It's A Little Cooler In Cloudcroft, NM
- Aly & JT
- Aug 10
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 10
We’ve been to New Mexico a lot. If you want to get anywhere by car west or northwest of Texas, you have to go through the “Land of Enchantment”. Simple geography. Sadly, from where we live to get to any of those points it’s pretty flat and barren after the first hour in the car. Ugh. You don’t understand boredom until you’ve been in the car for 5 or 6 hours driving through West Texas and the only thing to do is name the oil derricks you see dotting the flat lands from your window. Excruciating.
So when we packed up the ride to head out for this last road trip to Moab, to say we were less than thrilled to be driving through the same old doldrums would be an understatement. But to get from here to there, you gotta do what you gotta do. We did find another new route that took us through a few new small towns, which was nice. After about 8 hours of driving, we made it roughly halfway to our destination, stopping in Tucumcari, NM. A once-thriving burg along the fabled Route 66 back in the day, today the nostalgia seems to be fading despite the struggle to remain visible. The current state of many of the small towns that made the Route what it was back in its
heyday is unfortunate. There are still some bright spots and cool memorabilia to see if you make the trek from Chicago to Santa Barbara along what’s left of Route 66, but once the interstate system took over and bypassed the center of the towns, their lifeline was severed. If I had all the money in the world I’d bring back the much loved path to the West for future generations to experience. Anyway…that’s for another post. We did find a tiny coffee shop open for some road fuel, took in their local quirkiness, and continued our way to Utah.
If you missed our post on Moab, you can catch up on that part of our adventures here. We rejoin our regularly scheduled programming heading out of the Colorado Rockies and back down into New Mexico once again. Leaving the peaks of Colorado always brings a little pain to the heart. Just so pretty! Even living in the “pretty part” of Texas in the Hill Country, there’s no comparison. Coming down the mountains, the scene along the road gets less and less green, the trees shrink down, and the temperatures creep back up, until you’re back in the flat, barren terrain for the next 5 or 6 hours. For all you nut (pistachio) lovers out there, Alamagordo, NM is the place for you. Acres and acres of orchards, often attached to or containing a winery, to stop for some snacks and merriment (just don’t drink and drive). Just outside of Alamogordo, we turned left towards Lincoln National Forest. Like Colorado in reverse, the higher we climbed up the highway, the greener it turned, the taller the trees grew, and the cooler the temps fell. Next thing we knew we were surrounded by the tall pines and lush forest just as we had left hours ago. But in Cloudcroft, New Mexico.
Perched 9000 ft above sea level, this oasis isn’t big. Not even a stop light. What it lacked in size it made up for in hospitality and friendliness. Our two nights were spent just outside of town on Sleeping Bear Lane in a teepee. A unique set up we found on AirBnb to further our full camping experience. Even though it was slightly more rustic than our Moab accommodations, our teepee had just as many, if not more, amenities. The bed was incredibly comfortable, we had a small sitting area, coffee maker, microwave, and mini fridge inside; picnic table, gas grill and fire pit, and private outhouse and shower outside. Our host and her husband took every design detail very seriously and made for a great experience. Aly and I slept in the Wild Horses Tipi, while the tiny human had his own tent right outside. For our first night we grilled brats, munched on chips and dip, some fruit, then fired up the pit to cap of the evening with s’mores under the stars. Does it really get much better than that?!?
The cool morning air let us stay snuggled up under the toasty covers a little later than expected. But a beautiful morning it was. In true camper style we fired up the pit for breakfast and this time fried up bacon in a cast iron skillet and baked croissants in the cast iron Dutch oven. The croissants got a little blackened on the bottom, but with the butter and crispy bacon we could still laugh about it and enjoy. For the late morning we took in some more nature with a couple hours hiking OSHA Trail right in town. A mild trail with a little elevation it was something we could all handle. The solid 2-plus mile loop hike was just what we needed to stretch out the legs, take in some crisp mountain air, and be with nature. Back in the “city”, we walked up and down Burro Street lined with shops, cafes, art galleries, and even a wine tasting room we were forced to stop in to try. Noisy Water had numerous options, along with decent charcuterie offerings and olive oils next door. We ended up with the Merlot and Mourvèdre added to our collection. Quite a few places happened to be closed on Wednesday, but we made do and had a nice afternoon gathering up a few nicknacks to bring home. An interesting surprise was The Lodge Resort. Slightly higher than the main area of town sits an antique of a hotel originally built in 1899. Shortly into it’s existence it burned down in 1909. With the help of some doctors claiming the cool climate of Cloudcroft provided much needed benefits to sick children, they were able to sell shares to interested parties and rebuild the hotel. By 1911 The Lodge was back up and has been running ever since. We decided out next trip through would include a stay in the historic hotel and would have to spend some quality time in the golf themed St. Andrew’s Bar.
As if Mother Nature knew it was our last night of vacation, she brought out the farewell committee. On our drive back to the teepee, grazing in the open pastures along the road, were at least a dozen magnificent elk. We even heard a couple, along with the coyote, as we grilled steaks and toasted another round of s’mores before bed. There may have been a whiskey night cap to say goodnight and cheers another successful adventure. Of all the times we’ve been to New Mexico, this one offered the biggest surprise. Depending on where we are heading next, if the trail happens to lead us through the Land of Enchantment again, we’ll be able to talk about something other than the oil derricks and remember the drive could be worse. We could be driving through Oklahoma!
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