MY DAUGHTER, WILLA, STANDS ON her tippy-toes, looking west from The Lodge at Cloudcroft’s copper-topped tower. From this 9,000-foot perch, light from the setting sun gets caught in dust over White Sands National Park, creating an orange glow in the Tularosa Basin below. But like most preschoolers, she’s more interested in reclimbing the narrow staircase.
As Willa scampers to the lounge, I read the names carved into the tower’s 112-year-old wood, including the signatures of Judy Garland and Clark Gable protected in a simple glass frame. Hollywood figures have enjoyed this view since the 1930s, when hotel mogul Conrad Hilton managed the property. But The Lodge at Cloudcroft seems just as well suited for families of more ordinary stock.
We rolled into town this morning, dirty from a night of camping off Bailey Canyon Road, about three miles from town in the Lincoln National Forest, and yet the resort staff asked no questions about Willa’s muddy shoes, the Frisbee her dad tossed to her on the back lawn while I checked in, or my campfire-scented hoodie. Hours later and still not clean, we requested access to the historic tower and received the key with no strings—only an old brass doorknob—attached.
“Families come here to get cool and not do anything—not be on your phone, not be entertained,” says Matt Willett, who owns High Altitude outdoor shop and has kids of his own.
From up here, we can look southeast into the Sacramento Mountains or gaze down on the grid of narrow
