The Sacramento Mountains are a complex of ranges in southern New Mexico, east of the White Sands National Monument and Missile Range, and running north past the towns of Carrizozo and Capitan. The highpoint of the range is mighty Sierra Blanca, but in a sense the range is actually a composite of ranges, since the southern portion of the Sacramentos is separated from Sierra Blanca but quite some distance and elevation drop. Perhaps the geology that created these mountains is all the same, but from a visual and visceral feel, the southern portion of the Sacramentos could be considered a range in its own right. At least that’s how I feel.

I was starting a week-long tour of New Mexico, with a number of prominent peaks on my to-do list, generally swinging south to north in a counter-clockwise manner. On my docket were four prominent peaks surrounding Sierra Blanca (which I hiked back in 2001), then a few more up north nearer Taos. I left home early the morning of the 6th, and made the 430-mile drive east into New Mexico through Lordsburg, Deming and Las Cruces, arriving into Alamogordo about 5 p.m. in very mixed weather; I had driven through some heavy rain squalls on the way out, and the whole state seemed to be under some very active monsoonal-type storms. I planned to camp first, but the rain, and some very inexpensive motel prices, prompted me to take a room on the main drag in town.

The southern Sacramentos were visible once I came up and over San Agustin Pass, which comes up from Las Cruces and over the Organ Range. I stopped briefly to view the Organs, and down into the military housing town where we lived back in 1969-1970. Looking east, the southern Sacramentos rise up from the desert plain below, but the range does not feature one particular obvious summit. From the east the Sacramentos rise gently, then drop abruptly west down into the Tularosa Plain via many sheer cliff faces. The range is best known as home to the National Solar Observatory in Sunspot, a little town built to service the observatory. The community of Cloudcroft is the main city in the range, a nice place set at 8,000 feet elevation, with authentic old-time buildings still standing. The gentle nature of this range’s topography means that identifying the actual highest point(s) is next to impossible without a good topographical map. Even the observatories are built on slightly lower hills apart from the highpoints. There are three highpoint areas, one south of Sunspot and two clumped close by one another about 5 miles north of Sunspot. Forest roads go close by all three areas, but to make this sporting, and hankering for even a small hike, I chose to follow some foot-trails and forest roads and make a moderate hike out of the highpoints.

From Alamogordo I drove up US-82 into Cloudcroft, then followed state routes NM-130 and NM-6563 south past Sunspot, finding the trailhead for Corral Canyon (Tr-537) along paved local route C-1 two miles southeast of the turn-off to Sunspot (and about 20 miles south of Cloudcroft). Yesterday’s heavy clouds were gone, and it was mostly clear during the early morning, but the air was very humid and there was much localized ground fog in the little canyons and pockets of the range. The ingredients were there for more active weather later in the day once it warmed up. I parked at the Corral Canyon trailhead around 8:00 a.m. local time. The temperature was about 50 degrees – very cool but very nice.

I got my boots on and my pack in order and started up the trail up Corral Canyon. The trail heads due north and gains about 800 feet in about a mile through heavy forest and grasses. It doesn’t get too much traffic, I guess. The grasses were wet with dew and in the process, my pants and boots got quite wet as well hiking through it. In about 30 minutes I was at the top of the short trail, where it lets out onto Forest Road 64. I turned right and followed FR-64 now mostly south for about another mile, passing a number of small hills that were almost as high as the highpoint hill. Finally I was close to my objective, and when it felt right I entered into the trees and grasses to seek out the highest point, marked as spot elevation 9,695 feet on the map. I found a small cairn of rocks up against a tree on the mostly open summit, and signed in. However, views below were mostly occluded by the trees. The hike down went quickly and I was back to my truck within an hour of starting.

For the other two areas, I backtracked north up NM-6563 to Forest Road 223, directly opposite the turn-off to the Alamo Peak Observatory. I followed this road for about 3 miles to its junction with FR-5007, and parked in a pull-out here. The other highpoints are on top a small hillock directly north of the junction. I walked up the easy slopes and kept going up, passing the first area (clearly lower) and continuing on to the second, more northerly area, where sat another cairn and register. A few mentioned comparing GPS readings of elevation and remarking this point being possibly the highest of the three. However, all three are easy to visit, and in my mind, their relative contour areas and gradients would suggest (to me) that the southern and northern area are statistically the same. Either way, I had visited both and was happy with that. This little excursion took just a few minutes.

From here I returned north into Cloudcroft for a lunch and some time walking around its little downtown area. It’s a real cute little town, maybe a place to come back to for a vacation.

It was about noon when I finally left Cloudcroft. I returned down into Alamogordo and tried to seek out a nearby lat-long confluence, which I gave up on due to heavy cactus-y brush. Instead I drove north through Carrizozo and into Capitan, where I took a hotel for two nights as a base of operations for the next three peaks on my list. By now most of the sky was clouded up and there were a few thunderstorms in action, so hiking any more today was out of the question. I got rained on a few times and took refuge in the hotel room, reading up on old Smokey Bear.