Home Is Where You Park It!: Tunnel Vista and Wills Canyon

Time is running out for our Sacramento Mountain summer, so we're trying to cover the places we've delayed.

First, Tunnel Vista on Hwy 82 on the dry side of the mountains going to Alamogordo. Amazingly, we haven't stopped here even once this year although we've made weekly trips to Alamo since June 6.

A visitor was so excited to share his sighting of the Barbary Sheep, he called them "Ram's Horn"

Was pretty exciting to see how agile and sure footed these animals are, exoctic though they may be.

The ruggedness of this side of the mountains is amazing. The thin green line at the bottom of the canyon

reveals the hidden water far below.

Braver souls than me often hike (climb) to the recreation area below.

Thank goodness Alvin doesn't mind posing for photos.

Another location we drove past numerous times was the recently restored Trestle Vista overlooking Mexican Canyon Trestle

The highest trestle and one of the few remaining remnants of the "Cloud Climbing Railroad" , the reason for the creation of Cloudcroft has been an attraction since before my childhood days in Artesia.

Again, I used Alvin to document our stop.

The newly completed Vista stop uses replicas of the original ties for benches

and trestle components to relate some railroad history to travelers stopping by.

The next place on out list was Wills Canyon. Everytime we drove Upper Rio Penasco we would say we have to drive Wills Canyon so August 7 this was our destination.

The monsoon season in full swing was evident in the towering alto cumulus building over the mountains and the ruts and washouts on Will Canyon road.

The creek was running and high water debris was evident on the sides of the canyon. We met a forest service employee removing downed trees from across the roadway.