Doug Kerr
Well-known member
Alamogordo, New Mexico snuggles up to the foothills of the western escarpment of the Sacramento Mountain Range, which can be reasonably considered as the southernmost portion of the extended Rocky Mountains. The range rises to almost 9700 ft MSL. (We live at 4572 ft MSL.)
So we can reasonably say that we live about 1/2 mile west of the Rockies. (When I lived in Albuquerque, we said we lived "65 feet" west of the Rockies.)
There are a number of homes that are substantially up into the foothills. One of the most impressive is this one. located near the mouth of Marble Canyon:
Douglas A. Kerr: Life in the hills
It is about one mile roughly southeast from our home, and almost 500 feet higher (just about at 5000 ft MSL).
This was shot from our back yard with - wait, I forgot where I was. Nobody is supposed to care about that.
From this elevation shot one cannot appreciate the scope of this edifice. Better to look at it from overhead (the previous view was from about the azimuth of the upper-left corner of this shot):
Copyright 2014 Google Earth
If we zoom out a little:
Copyright 2014 Google Earth
we see (upper left) that same small motor home we saw in the elevation shot. I suspect that houses the watchman for this property.
To put this into topographic perspective, we zoom out a bit more:
Copyright 2014 Google Earth
You see the location of our home and "the mansion". Just to its northwest we see the southeast corner of the "main" portion of Alamogordo.
This is fabulous country, "Where the desert meets the mountains."
People ask, "Well, how close is the desert, actually?" "In the back yard."
Best regards,
Doug
So we can reasonably say that we live about 1/2 mile west of the Rockies. (When I lived in Albuquerque, we said we lived "65 feet" west of the Rockies.)
There are a number of homes that are substantially up into the foothills. One of the most impressive is this one. located near the mouth of Marble Canyon:
Douglas A. Kerr: Life in the hills
It is about one mile roughly southeast from our home, and almost 500 feet higher (just about at 5000 ft MSL).
This was shot from our back yard with - wait, I forgot where I was. Nobody is supposed to care about that.
From this elevation shot one cannot appreciate the scope of this edifice. Better to look at it from overhead (the previous view was from about the azimuth of the upper-left corner of this shot):
Copyright 2014 Google Earth
If we zoom out a little:
Copyright 2014 Google Earth
we see (upper left) that same small motor home we saw in the elevation shot. I suspect that houses the watchman for this property.
To put this into topographic perspective, we zoom out a bit more:
Copyright 2014 Google Earth
You see the location of our home and "the mansion". Just to its northwest we see the southeast corner of the "main" portion of Alamogordo.
This is fabulous country, "Where the desert meets the mountains."
People ask, "Well, how close is the desert, actually?" "In the back yard."
Best regards,
Doug