Southern highlands

The mountain ranges of south-central New Mexico run deep with history, from ancestral Native grounds to legendary outlaws to heroes of fire prevention. 

The Sacramento Mountains form the craggy eastern border of the Tularosa Basin, then rise even higher to the unseen Sierra Blanca. Always associated with the Trinty Site where the first atomic bomb was test, Alamogordo (fat cottonwood in Spanish) is the metropolis of the region, although still a quintessential western town built along a single federal route. 

At the much-smaller town of Tularosa, one must decide with the calmer route to Carrizozo along the edge of the mountains or one which ventured into historic realms of southern New Mexico. The route was never in doubt. From Tularosa the elevation gains sharply, although like much of New Mexico, the roads are four lanes and forgiving. 

Snow and clouds walled off Sierra Blanca, the highest peak in the region. At nearly 12,000 feet above sea level, Sierra Blanca is the southernmost alpine mountain in the U.S. Even with its upper heights obscured, the mountain’s massive base seemed to overshadow the whole region. 

Much of this quiet wilderness lies within the Mescalero Apache Reservation. The Mescalero invited other Apache peoples to join their reservation, so multiple bands live on its 463,000 acres. Much of Sierra Blanca lies within the reservation, and hiking the peak requires a permit from the Mescalero. 

The scenic beauty of the reservation lands and neighboring Lincoln National Forest have turned the reservation into a destination for hiking and skiing – Ski Apache Resort is the southernmost resort of its kind in North America. The rain that fell on the reservation fell as snow a few thousand feet higher. 

Past the Mescalero, Billy the Kid begins to take over. A man known only from one grainy photo but central to endless movies and stories moved into legend in these mountains. The tale of Billy the Kid feels overblown. William H. Bonney became embroiled as a gunslinger during the Lincoln County War, a range war between cattle barons. 

We passed through tiny Lincoln, county seat and home to the real-life exploits of Billy the Kid. The Kid stood trial in the county courthouse and made his final escape while killing two deputies. Lincoln and neighboring Capitan sit in a river valley between the Sacramento Mountains and the Capitan Mountains. Overblown or not, Billy the Kid’s story has become etched in the west. 

 But The Kid is not the only legend formed in these mountains. In Capitan, we stopped at the resting place of one of the world’s most famous bears. 

For 26 years, a real-life Smokey Bear lived at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. I never expected to roam close enough to Capitan to see Smokey Bear’s grave. But the return trip brought us within 20 miles, and I had to see it. Ever since I found out there had been a real Smokey Bear, I could not escape the story or images of the tiny cub too small to survive in the wild.  

The Smokey Bear wildfire prevention campaign began in 1944. During a devastating 1950 Capitan Gap wildfire, firefighters found the tiny bear cub in a scorched tree, his paws burnt and his mother never found. A forest ranger and his family treated his burns and brought the cub back to health. While they considered other names including Hotfoot Teddy (really), Smokey Bear stuck. 

When Smokey Bear died in 1976, the U.S. Forest Service wanted to return him to the New Mexico forest where he was born. The spot where firefighters found Smokey was quite remote, and they feared vandalism if they buried him there. The Forest Service chose Capitan, the nearest town, for a memorial garden. Most of the businesses in little Capitan have names honoring their famous resident. 

The state of New Mexico administers the historic site. A museum tells the Smokey Bear story and the influence of the fire prevention campaign, which has been adapted worldwide. The international posters are often unintentionally funny, such as the French one in which a man carelessly taps out his pipe's tobacco onto the ground. 

Smokey Bear’s final resting place lies beneath a boulder taken from the area of the Lincoln National Forest where the rangers found him. A simple bronze plaque told his story. Smokey’s grave anchored a three-acre garden of trees representing the trees and plants that live in New Mexico’s various vegetative zones, leaving out only the sub-arctic tundra found on the state’s tallest peaks. 

On a trip full of quiet, contemplative places, the peace in this little memorial garden was worthy of the world's most famous bear.