Cloudcroft New Mexico

Mountains, mountains you say? After a year of living in west Texas I had almost forgotten what mountains looked like.  So when our friends invited us to go to a place with an elevation of over 8000 feet complete with pine trees, cool breezes and a stream (yes a stream full of water! Did I mention we live in west Texas?) we had to go.  The drive was about four hours from where we live plus add in the kid factor of one extra hour for potty breaks, 2 year old I can't sit in this car seat for one more minute tantrum, and a quick lunch break altogether it was around five hours but wasn't too bad of a driving experience. We went the first week of June and the wild flowers alone along the way were worth the drive.  

We camped. With three children. In a tent.  What I have to say about camping with kids is if you have never done it before, do a one night trip first.  My husband and I both grew up camping a lot with our families so we know what to do, how to set things up, what to pack and what to cook.  We are both pretty good at camping. Now having said that I need to say that we don't really enjoy camping. It is a ton of work from packing to unpacking and everything in between.  Add watching a fearless wandering two year old into that and it's not really a vacation for us anymore but an "experience". We camp for our kids because we both have wonderful warm and fuzzy memories of camping with our families when we were growing up and we want our kids to make similar memories.  As my husband likes to say after an exhausting day of camping, "we had our time as kids, it's their time now".  More about camping with kids in a later post.  Now on to Cloudcroft, New Mexico and what makes it a great Family Vacation Time.

The views are gorgeous. This was the view from our tent spot.  The kids played in this meadow for hours.  In the morning and evening we watched deer (and they watched us) slowly roam through here munching on grass. Our kids thought it was better than watching T.V.

Below is the view from a nearby waterfall. (Remember we were promised a stream)

Promised waterfall

We stayed at a campground called Sleepy Grass campground.  It was very clean and not crowded at all.  It is a basic campsite with no electricity or showers but there is potable water near every campsite and clean pit toilets.  The host was very nice and friendly.  This campground is in Lincoln National forest and does charge a fee per night. (No more than $25 per night depending on your campsite.) It is a great family vacation time because it is beautiful, clean and quiet with lots of things for you and your kids to explore together. Here is another view from our campsite.

We also visited nearby Sunspot NM which I recommend to everyone who is interested in Astronomy and as a fun way to teach kids more about our nearest star. http://www.nso.edu/. Just a side note, the elevation is very high here, 9200 feet to be exact. Be aware if you are sensitive to high elevation.

There is a small museum here that is informative and hands on.  It is kid friendly and affordable. $3 per adult and kids are free! My kids loved the hands on exhibits and I hope learned something about the sun and how it affects the earth. It was well worth the extra 30 minute drive from our campsite to see this place.

There is a small village in Cloudcroft in case you need ice or anything else you forgot or you just need to walk around civilization for a while, do a little shopping and grab some food that someone else cooked. There is also a small village hotel that looked comfy and fun for you non campers. The village was charming and rustic. It is a nice small mountain community. The locals were very friendly and one helped us find a great place to eat lunch one day. We highly recommend the burgers, onion rings, and friendly service at Dave's Pinecone Cafe. It's fast casual and the kids loved the kids meals.

I'm rating camping in Cloudcroft as 8 out of 10 for Family Vacation Time. It would get a 10 if there were flushing toilets and showers.  It is well worth the work of camping to take your family on this adventure.  My favorite moment from this vacation was sitting at the picnic table at our campsite, my two year old quietly coloring next to me while I watched my husband take our two older children on a hike up a nearby mountain.  I could hear their exclamations of wonder as they pointed things out to their daddy and asked questions about what they were seeing. I felt so content and happy at this moment surrounded by such beauty with the people I wanted to share it with.

This is not a complete review of Cloudcroft. Just a review of our experience there. I'm sure there is a lot more to do in this delightful mountain town and in Lincoln National Forest. So go out and explore it for yourself and bring the kids along too!

See what I mean about the wild flowers along the way? Yes that's an oil pump in the background.