April 1 2016

Friday, April 1

Another gorgeous day on our road trip!  This morning we left Alpine, Texas and took a short drive to Fort Davis, Texas to see Fort Davis.  At 5,050' Fort Davis is the highest town in Texas.  Fort Davis was originally a military post established in 1854. This historic site is said to be one of the best remaining examples of a restored frontier military fort in the country.  It was named for Jefferson Davis who was the Secretary of War at the time.  
After seeing Fort Davis, we got on the Texas Mountain Trail to see more beautiful mountains on our way to see the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.  We saw Guadalupe Mountains and the peak with El Capitan that is 8,085", Bush Mountain, Pine Top, 
Mc Kittrick Ridge, and a few other mountains. It was a very cool and rainy day but it did not distract us from the beautiful drive.  Carlsbad Caverns were amazing...and yes, I even went into the caverns.  Those who know me well know I do not like things like caverns, gondola lifts, etc. but I didn't want to miss seeing these caverns.  We did not walk all the way to the end, it would have taken too long. After leaving Carlsbad Caverns, we continued on our scenic mountain drive. From Carlsbad we drove to Artesia, New Mexico and then took US 82 to our stop for the evening which is Alamogordo, New Mexico.  This drive was very interesting, it was a very slow steady climb.  Artesia sits at 3,379' and we climbed to 8,668' when we reached Cloudcroft, much of this drive was passing through the Lincoln National Forest. After we reached Cloudcroft we had a steep drive down into Alamogordo.  The rain turned into snow at times on our route, with 4-5 inches of snow reported in Cloudcroft, but it was sunny and bright by the time we came off the mountain and arrived in Alamogordo.  We want to give a shout out to the NM DOT for keeping US 82 clear. Found a locally owned Mexican restaurant for dinner called Margo's and it was delicious.  

The next pictures are of the Commanding Officers House

Houses for the other officers.

Texas Mountain Trail

Driving through Guadalupe and other mountains!

Flood Gauges like this are all over.  We saw lots of them also in
Big Bend National Park.

Pictures from my phone taken inside the Carlsbad Caverns!

This sign let us know what was to come!

Getting into Cloudcroft and sure enough there was snow.
All the roads were clear, no ice!  It was beautiful and the pine trees were
very tall!  

Just outside of Cloudcroft..sunshine!

In the center of this picture WAY off in the distance is White Sands!
Tomorrows first stop!

More pictures from inside the caverns!
These were taken on my phone.