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Thursday, August 4, 2011

The Switchback Trail

Starting out on the Switchback Trail
We didn't care for the first section of the Switchback Trail because it too closely paralleled Highway 82.  But once we crossed over on the pedestrain bridge, we got further away from the road, and we got a closeup and firsthand look at the original switchback that allowed trains to climb from Alamogordo (elevation approx. 4450 ft.) to Cloudcroft (elevation approx. 9000 ft.).  What a feat of engineering!
The tunnel under U.S. Highway 82


Beautiful section of trail

Fell on its Aspen


New Mexico Thistle and friends

Butterfly and thistle

Butterflies on thistle

Di nuovo

Pedestrian bridge over Highway 82

The bridge head

Dr. K on the Switchback Trail
The railbed for the historic railroad
at

2 comments:

Dr. K said...

Even though we heard the noise of the highway, this turned out to be a nice trail.

August 4, 2011 at 2:52 PM
Caroline said...

I always wondered what that trail was like! Beautiful photos of the butterflies!

August 10, 2011 at 1:02 PM

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