Journal

We camped for a few days at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park near Alamogordo, NM. It’s a beautiful campground at the base of Dog Canyon in the Lincoln National Forest.

The trail head departs directly behind the Visitor’s Center and climbs steeply to a series of plateaus, one of which grew a happy grove of cholla. While the whole trail is over 5.5 miles long and takes you up to Eyebrow Ridge, we went 3 miles up to the Line Cabin which was plenty on this hot spring day. We’re glad we got an early start.

The trail continues even more steeply after the Line Cabin which is situated strategically where a spring seeps from the canyon above. It’s amazing to think back a hundred years ago to when cows were routinely rounded up and kept there to graze.

Just as sun was setting later in the day, we decided to take another stroll around the campground to find Frenchy’s cabin. It still has some intact adobe walls and sits at the base of the canyon. Sweeping stacked rock walls were built from here way up the canyon walls to contain his cattle herd.