The morning of July 27 started with the sunrise through the juniper and the march of day crossing the valley toward the Tortuga on Guadalupe Ridge, a high desert with spectacular views that extend over 100 miles. It is still hard to believe that it was almost three days in the Guadalupe section of the Lincoln National Forest and the only human contact was on day one. The majestic landscape and solitude made a moment that would not be forgotten. The Guadalupe Ridge is an overlander’s must do.
But now it was time to go one more mile and the plan was to move from the high desert to the pine forest. It only took a couple more hours of driving and the Tortuga was out of the Guadalupes, with a few more spectacular views from the ridge road.
The initial objective was Pinon, New Mexico, in Otero county. It is a small spec of a town with a small country store and a post office serving an isolated community of ranchers. Walking into the country store it appeared that the proprietor was surprised to see a customer. The shelves were filled with canned goods, chips and frozen foods that could easily be microwaved. In the second room, there were three kids laying on bags of corn feed watching a movie on a tablet computer and one was almost asleep. The proprietor, who wore a blue apron, with “MOM” embroidered it, then sheepishly asked, “What’s that?” pointing to the Tortuga Truck. Having been born in Pinon to a long time ranching family, the concept overlanding was new to her, but she was intrigued. The conversation went on for a few minutes and she warmed up to the Tortuga and offered up her WIFI. Sitting on the front porch under the bright blue skies with white puffy clouds, drinking a Gatorade and intermittently checking for critical e-mails and ignoring the news made for an enjoyable afternoon.
But the day was not done! It was time to get back on the road and find the big pines, the goal of the Tortuga’s escape from the hot Texas summer. The Tortuga took surface roads through Timberon, a long-established subdivision south of Cloudcroft, New Mexico, with its own landing strip, lodge and all sorts of homes amongst the pines.
Just on the other side of Timberon is the Sacramento Mountain section of the Lincoln National Forest. The attraction of a national forest is that there is dispersed camping — 300 feet on either side of the road you can pull up and set up. The hopes were that the vista found in the Guadalupe Section would be found in the Sacramentos. After leaving Timberon, the search was on to find a site for the night. Even though the area was beautiful with tall mountains and deep valleys there was very little room on the sides of any roads. Either you were going up or going down and much of the flat land was privately owned. This would be harder that initially thought.
As the search for a site for the night continued, signs led the Tortuga to Sun Spot, New Mexico. Sun spot is the home of a Solar Observatory that had it heyday through the 60s and into the 90s. It was truly a history lesson on the important research accomplished there. Now it appears to collect data and support research in other parts of the world, and unfortunately looks like a set piece from “LOST.”
While at Sun Spot, we went up to the observation deck with a beautiful view down to the valley below, and met a young research scientist who gave us a brief description of the hiking and camping opportunities in and around the area. If you are a hiker or backpacker the opportunities to travel the ridge appear to be endless.
He directed the Tortuga to mile marker 9 where there was a turn off down a narrow road winding along a stream bed, to a trail head that would be perfect for a camp site under the tall pines. The Tortuga nestled into a small meadow, amazed at the loud racket made by the many birds around at sunset and sunrise. In the evening, a group of horses galloped down the hill past the camp site, scared by some dirt bikes nearby. Night came with the first good stars of the trip, and two shooting stars.
The next morning finally brought the cool, 51 degree weather and a lazy morning drinking coffee and enjoying the forest birds and a short hike up the steep trailhead to a beautiful meadow welcoming us to a more alpine landscape. This was a beautiful spot, but the somewhat steady stream of cars passing on the road below made it much less remote than the Guadalupe section (a hard act to follow).
The 9-mile marker where the Tortuga camped meant 9 more miles to Cloudcroft, New Mexico. The Tortuga remembers a sleepy little mountain town, a place to go in the summer to escape the desert heat of Alamogordo some 4,000 feet of elevation below. Sleepy little mountain town, NOT anymore. Driving through on the way out, one quick lap to see a line of people wrapped around a Barbeque restaurant was enough to leave. Tortuga would rather keep the fond memories of an isolated mountain community unscathed, versus having to elbow a tourist for more barbecue sauce. Time for the steep descent down the mountain to Alamogordo, and a jog across to Las Cruces, with a stop at White Sands along the way.
White Sands! The world’s greatest beach with no water. White Sands National Monument, Holloman Air Force Base, Alamogordo and few other small towns sit in a larger desert basin that was once filled with water. Millions of years later, only the stunning gypsum sand remains. On a cool desert evening with a full moon, it is one of the most beautiful places in the world. UNFORTUNATELY, the Tortuga was there in the middle of the day in July. It was HOT, but still spectacular.
For a brief moment there was a thought to stay until the park closed at 9 PM, but that was quickly discarded for the idea of having the best margaritas and best Mexican food in the world … the green chile enchiladas and sopapillas against which all others are measured (and fail). It was off to Las Cruces to eat at La Posta Restaurant, in an old Butterfield Trail Stage Coach Stop in the tiny village of La Messia. And to an RV park for the night to get fully charged up and resupplied for the days ahead. It was now time to prepare for the Gila National Forest the next day.