Up and Down

Up and Down
Driving across southern New Mexico is like riding a 400-mile rollercoaster. Up and down across mountain ranges--Guadalupes, Sacramentos, San Andres, Organs (look it up), Mimbres, Mogollons, San Franciscos--and, with them, temperatures from low 30s to mid 80s in the space of an hour.
The morning began 750 feet underground at Carlsbad Caverns on a mile-long 'trail' through chamber after chamber of back-lit stalactites and stalagmites, bats, and ending with a restaurant. (When the elevator was built in 1931, it was the longest in the world, and replaced a four-hour hike with a two-minute ride.)
For once, we were blessed with bad weather. Going over the Sacramentos (I think), the weather dropped, the snow began, and the prospect of pitching a tent in the woods became a lot less attractive. In the tiny village of Cloudcroft we found a lodge with the name The Lodge, and it turned into a wonderful evening. Victorian on the outside, Bavarian on the inside, reads their brochure, and it was just that. We were the only guests on the top floor, and it was either very romantic or very spooky. -DN