Fir and OSHA Trails, Lincoln NF – Cloudcroft, NM 7/2/23

Fir and OSHA Trails – Lincoln National Forest – Cloudcroft, New Mexico

Ian, Court, Biff, and Finn

3-4 miles total

We got out of the summer heat of Texas (some of the worst ever, so far) for the 4th of July weekend and headed up to the mountains of Cloudcroft, New Mexico. My good friend Nikki has a house there and graciously let us stay before she heads up from Burnet for the summer.

The temperatures were in the 70s in the day and 50s at night vs 100+ in Texas. It’s just getting worse and I don’t know how much longer we can take it.

We brought the pups and got a couple of hikes in.

First was the Fir Trail in Lincoln National Forest.

We had planned to link this with another trail to form a longer loop, but the weather had other plans.

We got close to the car again where we were to take another trail, but the clouds were gathering. We knew the forecast had a chance of thunderstorms this day, but they weren’t supposed to hit until 1pm. Alas, at 11am, the skies opened up. Luckily, we only had about 50 yards to get to the car to escape the rain and hail that would last for over an hour.

We went back to the house for a bit and enjoyed the cool rain on the back deck overlooking the forest. The temperature dropped to 49 degrees!

Once the rain subsided, we decided to go on another hike, since we only had two full days here. The OSHA Trail begins just outside of Cloudcroft and is one of the most popular in the area. It’s a nice loop that isn’t too hard, but has some nice views and good shade in the forest as well. Lots of dogs on this one!

The next day, we would drive down to the desert to White Sands National Park, just recently promoted to that status.