Rock Slide Blocks US Route 82 Cloudcroft to Alamogordo
On my bi-weekly shopping trip, I was turned around in Cloudcroft. Big fire engine blocking U.S. Route 82 (the main road to Alamogordo from Cloudcroft). The fire department personnel working the traffic let me know that there was a rockslide on the Alamogordo side of the tunnel, and it would be closed all day and maybe tomorrow. If I had to get down to Alamogordo (I did), the only way would be to go back through the Mescalaro Rez, and towards Ruidoso (NM 244), then take the 70 down through Tularosa.
Bummer, but not impossible. I filled up the truck with gas in Cloudcroft and headed out the back way.
It wasn’t too bad, I had my audiobook to listen to, and it was a nice sunny day through the snowy Sacramento mountains. It added about an hour to each side of the trip. I came back the same way since there was another fire truck at the bottom of the 82 at the Brewers gas station and still no access – not even through Labrocita canyon.
Here are some pictures I lifted off Facebook:
I spoke to a friend who is a water tech with the Alamogordo water department, and who was on-site at the rock slide. He told me the rock like is resting on – or blocking – a spring line which is one of the feeds to the city of Alamogordo.
