We spent most of this past week along Three Rivers Road north of Alamogordo, NM. We have shared photographs from the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site in the past, but on this visit to the area we drove further up into the foothills of the Sacramento Mountains to a National Forest campground and stayed there for 3 nights. 

 

 

This is the entrance road to the Three Rivers Campground

And this is our campsite - Looking west and then east

The campground had horse corrals for campers who come to ride in the wilderness

 

Dried Flowers

 

Hiking the White Mountain Wilderness

 

The view west across the Tularosa Basin and White Sands National Park

 

And another view up into the mountains

 

To our amazement, there were wild horses living in the wilderness. It was explained that the wilderness abuts the Mescalero Apache reservation, and they allow horses to run free on their land.

 

Another dried plant

 

And there are very colorful cacti growing in the wild as well

 

Taking a break while hiking the Three Rivers Canyon

 

Back at the entrance to the campground - that white spot is our trailer

 

The view to the south

 

Sunsets

 

After 3 nights we packed up and headed for home in Las Cruces. But, driving through the Three Rivers Ranch, less than a mile away from our campsite, we came upon a group of elk crossing the road. (Sorry, no pictures. We had thought we were just going home.) And then some Mule Deer bucks. And then more birds than we could believe or catch with our cameras.

 

Then we stopped at the mission Santo Niño  de Atocha and it's graveyard. (Still only about 5 miles away from our campsite.)

 

 

We even walked part of the mission's Stations of the Cross, that are in an adjacent canyon and lead up to a cross on top of one of the mountains.

 

After that, it was clear that we were not going home that day, so we stopped at the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site again and wandered the hills for awhile before dinner and another night camping. 

Then we went home the next morning, with the cameras put away and promising each other not to look for any other place else to stop - on this trip. But we hope to be back to hike the Stations of the Cross before the spring gets too hot.