Escape the Heat/Enjoy Outdoor Activities Yr Round
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8/30/2018
Escaped the Heat of Texas 4 years ago with the NO AC NEEDED summers in the cool pines at 9000 feet. I worked in Houston for 2 decades with the WORST climate, HUMIDITY 90% year round making it colder feeling in the winter than the Rockies. Calgary Stampede Cowboys from Canada repeatedly said how they felt colder at the February Humid Houston Rodeo. Plus the humidity makes the 3 months of 100 degree weather nearly unbearable. At 10 pm, it's still 90 in summer & 90% humidity. You spend a TON of money on AC. I moved to West Texas in 1996 & loved the absence of humidity (average humidity single digits) which allows a breeze in the shade to cool you off even with temps the 90s.
I love golf, tennis, hiking & the Texas Summers are long & make a person want to live in a pool. We began escaping the heat in the Lincoln National Forest in Ruidoso & Cloudcroft in the 1990s, plus coming to ski in winter. Summers in Ruidoso were a nice break, much cooler than West TX but CROWDED( tough to get tee times)so we'd drive over to shop, golf & hike in Cloudcroft & were amazed that it was 10 degrees cooler. We'd fly in from Houston, rent a car & enjoy the 2 hour drive. When we moved to West Texas, Cloudcroft was a 5 hour drive for blissfully cool respite from the heat or skiing.
We enjoy summer & winter lunches at the LODGE because it has a better view than evening (looking down the Tularosa Basin to the Gorgeous White Sands), Friday All You Can Eat Catfish at BIG DADDYs, Taco Tuesdays at the iconic WESTERN CAFE with signed, adorned dollar bills stapled to the inside of the walls & ceilings, Mi Cabanita Tuscon Style Mex Food & MAD JACKS,THE BEST BBQ I've ever eaten (That's high praise growing up in TX with a Dad who made the best brisket until I met "JACK") trailer once or twice between Thursday & Sunday ( sandwiches at trailer & short wait) & eating at the picnic tables under the pines. Kennabelles & the Burro Street exchange have wonderful baked goods, coffee & tea. Daves has hand dipped ice cream & coffee plus mixed drinks.
Burrro Street Shopping features an awesome Thrift Shop, KINGS TREASURE to pick up anything you forgot or just need for the weekend (Texans tend not to bring sweaters though the nights are chilly: 40 degrees in August often.), a terrific QUILT SHOP, Sew Happy & NOISY WATER Winery which has the wonderful NUTTY PINON COFFEE, an terrific TEA SHOP & TURQUOISE SHOP that I bought squash blossoms at in 1993, MOUNTAIN MAGIC with the best BATH BOMBS, COCO BLU women's apparel & beauty supplies--good lip balm for those not used to the arid climate & the 300 days of sunshine a year. SAMS SILVER LINING has handmade jewelry by some of the Mountain's artisans , often with a celestial theme. Some of the Darkest Skies in the lower 48 make stargazing so much fun. OFF THE BEATEN PATH has the coolest garden art & metal shamans MUCH CHEAPER than Ruidoso metal art & twice as cheap as Fredericksburg ,TX.
The schools are A-Rated. The crime is low & sheriff's know who the trouble makers are in this small community.
We hike in the quaking Aspens to waterfalls or the Rio Penasco or ride 4 wheelers with a group from church on the trails that motorized vehicles are allowed on.
We have festivals & events like street dances, rails to trails runs plus art classes in the Library. The Tularosa Basin has a couple of vineyards; I like the Tularosa Vineyard which produces a crisp, DRY REISLING like in Finger Lakes, NY & a DRY GEVURTZTRAMINER like GERMANY with wonderful spice from the particular terroir minerals when most of the NM wineries only have Sweet whites (YUK).
With Alamogordo 16 miles down mountain, you can leave the snow & play golf in the winter or have many restaurants, PISTACHIO FARMS - the Big Nut is the Best because the samples of sweet & savory pistachio items are self serve where at Heart of Desert you have to ask for samples & when it's crowed, that's a drag.
Our home is 7800 elevation, well within the comfort zone for lung issues. We back to the Forest & have ELK,DEER (Mule & Whitetail) & FLOCKS of TURKEYS wander through the subdivision. Cloudcroft to Mayhill is a trophy elk section of New Mexico & these bulls are a joy to watch. Yes we also have black bears; just be Bear Aware & keep food items/garbage sealed away from curious foragers. If you try to feed them, you will be signing their death warrant.
Day Skiing at the Cloudcroft Ski features family fun with little effort if you chose the tubing hill which pulls you up to the start of the runs. 2018-2019 will open the snow board slope with a lift & there is still the main runs that go back a mile into the hills & bowl area. 2018-19 winter is an EL NINO year so we expect more than our 47 inches of snow, unlike 17-18 which had a dearth of snow. In the summer, the best handmade PIZZAs are found at the SKI CLOUDCROFT with lovely green slopes to watch while eating near the crowds of hummingbirds on the deck. SKI CLOUDCROFT PIZZA is also your Mountain source for DIPPED ICE CREAM CONES!!!
Our air is clean & there are 4 seasons of outdoor activities (fisherman go to nearby SILVER LAKE) plus a friendly vibe & an engaged community with loads of local outreach to vulnerable or indigent populations. The Friday Fruit Market at the Pavilion (Ice Rink in Winter)& the Sunday version have the locally grown cherries, peaches, pears, plums, apples & tomatoes, greens, squash, chard, melons, eggs, garlic, onions & Amish made cinnamon rolls, bread & even gluten free goodies.
Alamogordo has great grocery stores, the FLICKINGER THEATRE, a university, a train museum, a mall, the AVIATOR 10 MOVIES & a Bowling Alley if you are tired of the outdoor beauty. Hospital & doctors plus pharmacies are an easy drive to Alamo if you need them (in West Texas we drove 140 miles Roundtrip to get to Walmart, movies, Walgreens so this is drive is quick & easy). Another Alamogordo attraction is the White Sands. Every year we climb barefoot up the gypsum sand 40 foot dunes of the White Sands with our silicone-sprayed bowl sleds to slide down. The aquifer beneath the white sands keeps the sand cool even in summer.
Mayhill has a great Café & Farmer's Markets on Saturdays & a great hair cutter DIANE who takes Walk Ins for $8.
We enjoy driving to Las Cruces (not in summer normally) for great Mex Food at Old Mesilla & wine tastings or hitting SAMS there or El Paso.
We feel the pressures of the city melt away when we get back to the Mountain from Texas. Cloudcroft is safe, scenic & has a great community of churches. Everything you NEED is in Cloudcroft : a doctor, a veterinarian, Allsup's for gas, lottery & they keep a bit of produce plus there is a DOLLAR STORE with ice cream & other necessities. And the LODGE has fun, sweat-free golf. The snow is lovely but melts off in the sun. Cloudcroft just has good energy.
We even sold our Texas Hill Country place to live up here full time which is amazing since as a native Texan, I'd never imagined I leave "Old Texas". I am enjoying the enchanted life in the historic "Old Texas" --the old boundaries before the US made TX give up territory. Cloudcroft is home now & we are blessed.
Texas Expatriate | Mayhill, NM