The Riparian Trail at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park.
Tortillas stacked up at the Alamagordo tortilla factory inside Lowes Signature Marketplace supermarket.
with mini waterfalls under a canopy of trees. We hiked this trail almost every day of our stay, relishing the cool dampness in the air as we left the hot dry desert behind. The other hike at this park, Dog Canyon Trail, climbs more than 3,000 feet for more than five miles one way from the trailhead to a mountain peak, going almost straight up the steep hillsides in many sections. There are two "benches" on this hike, and folks we met at the start of the hike told us either First Bench or Second Bench would be a good turnaround point if we didn't want to do the entire 10-plus mile long round trip. After passing a small sign that indicated First Bench was up ahead, we kept an eye out for a park bench along the trail, figuring we'd have a seat and enjoy the view. When no such bench appeared and then a sign indicated Second Bench was up ahead, we suddenly realized that these "benches" were not chairs at all but were large flat grasslands the trail traversed as it ascended into the heavens. We laughed for a long time at our naive mistake. We also paid a visit to the neighboring Oliver Lee Ranch House. This refurbished home was the hub of Oliver Lee's massive ranching empire at the turn of the last century. Touring the homestead was an enlightening step back in time into the wild west. Oliver Lee came to New Mexico
from Texas as a teenager in 1884 and, in 1893, he began construction of a sprawling ranch complex that included many outbuildings and barns. He was a gunslinger who, by some accounts, shot and killed his way into power. At his peak, he controlled more than a million acres of ranch land. His ranch house was later acquired by the National Park Service but fell into disrepair until 1971 when Disney Studios restored and modified the house for the movie, Scandalous John . Further restoration and excavation began at the ranch in 1984, and today many of the rooms resemble their original late 1800’s appearance. Snapping back to the modern era, we visited the town of Alamagordo about 15 miles north of the state park to provision our trailer. This part of the world has deep Mexican roots, and we were thrilled to watch tortillas being made at Lowes Signature Market. They have a "tortilla factory" at the back of the supermarket, and right in front of us we saw delicious hot flour tortillas dropping onto a conveyor belt and parading past to be deposited into stacks and placed into waiting bags. We grabbed a bag of warm tortillas and couldn't help but snack on a few before we even made it to the check-out counter! Just a little west of Alamagordo lies White Sands National
ROAD TRIP
COAST TO COAST SPRING MAGAZINE 2021
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