Artesia, Cloudcroft NM and the Trestle Trail Recreation area (Heading home)

Getting out of Lubbock on the loop wasn't easy.  There was a lot of traffic in all directions.  I ended up taking a wrong turn and ended up in Hobbs, NM before I realized I had gone too far south.  I had wanted to drive west on US 380. I didn't want to end up in El Paso, but driving NM385 is also risky, as oil trucks blast past passenger cars with only inches separating the two.  NM385 is one of the state's deadliest roads.

Southeastern New Mexico is the ugliest part of New Mexico.  Part of the Permian basin, this landscape is mostly flat, dotted with sagebrush, criss-crossed with powerlines, abandoned buildings, oil dereks and natural gas burning far in the horizon.  It's not a very inspiring landscape, except for those making money off of it.

It would have been nice to stop by Holly and Doug near the Guadalupe National Park, but I didn't want to barge in with no notice.  Getting together will have to wait for another time, when we can take several days to hike together again.  I was already feeling burn-out from the long drive, and the rising heat wasn't helping.   Staying alert in this heat, even with an air conditioner blowing, is hard for me. I just wanted to get home and out of this crowded car.  I'm sure Zeke felt the same way.

I stopped to walk a three-mile perimeter path in Eagle Draw Park in Artesia, NM.  This town has grown in size since the oil boom ten year ago.  Despite its name, though, there is nothing scenic about the town surrounded by oil refineries and oil tanks.  The only redeeming thing for the traveler is the many fast-food restaurants and motels. This little city park was busy with joggers along the multi-use path.  Children were climbing around the playgrounds.  The path even had a par-course with fitness machines.  The only thing the entire path lacked was any water fountain.  At least Zeke could drink from the irrigation water.

I gassed up one more time before leaving Artesia, then continued west on US 82.  The landscape was now getting hillier, greener, and leaving the smelly oil fields.  Once past the community of Hope, I could see the distant mountains of the Lincoln National Forest.  The road was leading to Cloudcroft, New Mexico, a former mining and lumber town nestled at 8668' and easily 20 degrees cooler than the upper 90s I was feeling.

I made it to Cloudcroft mid afternoon and parked the Honda on Grand Bouldevard in front of Dave's Cafe.  I was hungry and contemplated eating in this town, but a quick look at nearby hiking trails via my Alltrails app showed that I was .4 miles away from the Trestle Trail Recreation Area and the Mexican Canyon trestle.  The 3.8-mile Cloud-Climbing Trestle trail runs here, where back in the 1880s a railroad chugged mining ore along the mountainside.  The official trailhead closes at 6pm, but parking the Honda in town would prevent me from getting locked in, so off I went with Zeke to hike another short trail.

And I am so glad I did.  Had I known that I would stop in Cloudcroft for a hike, I could have bypassed Artesia and come straight here to hike a longer trail.  The tall Douglas firs cooled and also darkened the trail.  The trail is wide here, and despite a loss in elevation and some rocks along the path, easy to maneuver.  I met a few hikers finishing their hike when I started mine at 4:40pm

I made it to the Mexican Canyon trestle at 5:30pm.  This trestle is visible from US 82 which descends from Cloudcroft and meanders downhill toward Alamogordo.  A young family was standing on a viewpoint waving at me off the highway, asking me how I got to the position I was.  I didn't tell them that it was already too late in the day for them to hike to because the gate to the parking area closes promptly at 6pm.

There is so much history here in Cloudcroft.  I had been to this town twice before, but never knew about this hiking trail.  I only regretted that I didn't have much time (or the energy) to hike farther.  I hiked the entire trestle network #5001.  There are parts of the trail where it's obvious that once train tracks had been laid.

The hike took me 90 minutes.  Now I was hungry, though, and this time I did go inside Dave's Cafe for a Patty Melt and an oatmeal stout beer, managing ten minutes of "Happy Hour" before 6pm.  The burger and beer were OK, but I didn't want to stay long now that the day was coming to an end.  I decided to get off the mountain and spend the night at Holloman Air Force Base just outside of Alamogordo and camp out at the RV park.  It would give me a chance to shower finally before the last push home.

The RV park was a bit of a disappointment.  The entrance sign said the lot was full, but I saw a few empty spaces and plenty of overflow lots available.  The park has no trees for shade, and the ground is either dirt or gravel. It only has one shower for all the guests.  I guess that's because RVers shower in their vehicles.  There are no street lights in the park and everyone seems to have gone to sleep when I pulled in.  At least that provided for a quiet night.