We've done our Internet research and browsed through some images of the area we're headed to and think we're in for a treat! The plan is to go west out of Roswell on Hwy 380 on May 6th. We'll be heading into Lincoln National Forest and going up in elevation. Roswell is at an elevation of 3,573 feet and our first stop in Capitan will be at an elevation of 6,348 feet! Lincoln National Forest is the birthplace of Smokey the Bear, and his grave site is at Capitan. We'll continue on Hwy 380 to Valley of Fires State Park. Being in the national forest and with lots of BLM lands, we plan to try some boondocking. Next we'll head south on Hwy 54 to Three Rivers Petroglyph Site. It is the largest petroglyph site in the southwest, with 21,000 petrogyphs! We'll drive up to Ruidoso at an elevation of 7,000 feet. Ruidoso has a casino, horse racing, and some museums. We'll head out of Ruidoso on Hwy 70 and traverse the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation to the community of Cloudcroft at an elevation of 8,663 feet. Cloudcroft is said to be very quaint. We'll leave Cloudcroft on Hwy 82 and descend to Alamogordo at an elevation of 4,350 feet. Alamogordo has a Pistachio Farm tour and a Space Museum. On Hwy 70 southwest of Alamogordo is White Sands National Monument. We'll complete this leg of our adventure by going south to Carlsbad Caverns and Guadaloupe National Park. The weekend before our departure from Roswell is the Old Timer's Hot Air Balloon Festival and a Cinco de Mayo celebration! We will be starting our boondocking adventure by staying at the festivities! As excited as we are to head out on a new adventure, we will miss our family of friends at the Red Barn R.V. Park!
