Sierra Blanca

The panel's 12,003 feet is an old figure; the modern survey puts the summit at 11,981, still the southernmost peak in the continental United States above 11,000 feet. The summit stands on the Mescalero Apache Reservation and is sacred to the tribe, which requires a permit to reach it and has told climbers it is closed. Below it on the national forest, the ski area opened at Christmas 1961; the tribe bought it in 1963 under its president, Wendell Chino, and runs it today as Ski Apache.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Sierra Blanca Sierra Blanca, a complex ancient volcano, rises more than 7,300 feet above Tularosa Basin to peak at 12,003 feet. Vertical geologic movement between ranges and basin is about 2 miles. San Andres Mountains on the west side of Tularosa Basin are uplifted on east side and tilted westward. Elevation 4,670 feet.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Three Rivers Petroglyph Site — 19 mi
  More than 21,000 petroglyphs on a basalt ridge above the Tularosa Basin, one of the few places in the Southwest set aside for its rock art alone, walked on a rough half-mile trail.
• Smokey Bear Historical Park — 22 mi
  The small park in Capitan where the living Smokey Bear is buried, a cub found clinging to a burned tree in the Capitan Mountains in 1950, six years after the cartoon was invented.
• Lincoln Historic Site — 25 mi
  One street of adobe in the Bonito valley kept much as it was in the 1870s, where the Lincoln County War was fought over who would supply Fort Stanton and the Mescalero agency.

More markers nearby

• Lozen, Little Sister — 2.1 mi
• Old Dowlin Mill — 8.9 mi
• Blazer's Mill — 10 mi
• Birthplace of Elizabeth Gutiérrez Garrett — 10 mi