Labor Day Adventure

We have always liked to get out into nature but the last 6-7 months we have really grown to love hiking.  We are not advanced by any means but we love being able to walk out into the middle of nowhere and only hear the sound of our feet and Lilly talking (cause she never stops).  Anyway, over the Labor Day holiday we went up to Cloudcroft, NM.  Cloudcroft is unique in that it is at the top of a mountain.  You go from Alamogordo, elev. 4336 ft, at the base of the mountain and in a matter of 16 miles you climb nearly 4400ft.  Anyway enough of the geography.  We went to Cloudcroft with the express purposes of escaping the heat (Cloudcroft is about 20 degrees cooler) and to hike.

We started off our adventure by stopping at the Mexican Canyon railroad trestle.  The trestle was first built in 1900 to transport logs up and down the mountain.  The train also transported tourist up to Cloudcroft and eventually children who were battling Cholera to the Cloudcroft Baby Sanatorium to be treated.  After the road was built the trestles fell into disrepair and fell down.  The Mexican Canyon trestle was eventually rebuilt in order to preserve the history of the railroad.  (how's that for a history lesson)  

Anywho, after we stopped at the trestle we drove into the mountains to Bluff Springs.  We had been here before with Lilly but she didn't remember it.  We didn't stay there too long because there were a ton of people camped there so we just took a few pictures of the kids splashing in the spring a little bit and headed back  to the trail head to the other side of Mexican Canyon.  After eating a picnic lunch we started on our hike and that is where the real adventure started.  

It was a nice hike to begin with and although we were mistaken by the length of the hike, had alot of fun on the hike down to the trestle until is started sprinkling.  We should have taken that for a hint and turned around when it started but we were dumb and kept on going.  We got to the end of the trail at the opposite side of the canyon and took some pictures of the view and it started sprinkling a little harder.  So we put Carter back into the carrier and started our trek back to the car.  It wasn't too long before it started pouring down rain.  Of course we didn't have rain gear or ponchos or anything because we didn't think about it raining.  Apparently we have lived on flat land for too long and had forgotten how fast rain can move into the mountains.  So we make the 2.5 mile trip back to the car and we are all soaked but someone was watching out for us because as soon as we got back to the trail head shelter it really started pouring down.  So much so that we had to spend some time sitting in the car with the heater on because it was raining so hard we couldn't see to drive.  Anyway we did have a good time and Lilly had a good story to tell her teacher when she went back to school.  There's never a dull moment in our family.  Here are a few pictures of our day.

From the east side of the trestle.  That platform on the other side was our destination of our hike.

 

Checkin out the view

  spashin in the spring

A rare picture of me and my bug.  This is right before the rain really started coming down.

We should have taken a picture of us after the hike in all of our wet glory but we didn't.  

Oh well!