My Secret Place - August 2009

By Alan Hale, as told to Devon Jackson

I was born in Japan. My dad was in the Air Force. We moved to New Mexico in 1958, when I was about four months old, and my dad had been transferred to Holloman Air Force Base [just outside Alamogordo].

I graduated from Alamogordo High School, then went to the Naval Academy, and then the Navy, and from there I went to the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California. In 1986 I moved back to New Mexico, when I was offered a position at New Mexico State University. I’ve lived in Cloudcroft since 1995.

I’ve got several places I like to go, but my most special place is a spot my dad and I found when we went deer hunting when I was 12 years old. It’s up in the southern Sacramento Mountains. We found it kind of by accident, so you don’t know you’re there till you’re there.

Since I came back to New Mexico, I’ve probably been back to that spot only four times. I go there probably once every decade, when I need to be recharged—it’s emotionally recharging. The last time I was there was on my 50th birthday. But I hadn’t been there for about 15 years.

It’s not easy going up there, and I wanted that renewal. I wanted to give my body the physical challenge. It’s a bit of a challenging hike to get up there—it’s not really a trail, so it’s different in terms of its intensity, and I like it that way. And when you get to the top, you have wide vistas all around. It feels as if you’re on top of the world.

I’ve never gone there with anybody but myself. I once took my two sons up there, but it was late when we started, so we didn’t go all the way to the top. When I go up there, I like to contemplate life and the universe. Other things have happened to me since that first time I went up there with my dad—like finding that little comet in the sky. [This was Comet Hale-Bopp, which Dr. Hale discovered from his New Mexico driveway in 1995.]

I’ve been to places that are maybe more amazing—like Victoria Falls in Africa, which is totally mesmerizing. But I wouldn’t put that into the same category as this place in the Sacramento Mountains, because at Victoria Falls there were all these hotels and souvenir shops and tourists. It’s not private at all—which this place is. Which is why it stands out, because it’s a very personal place. And the view is spectacular, but you have to earn it. That, also, is why I like it so much.

Dr. Alan Hale is the founder and president of the Earthrise Institute. As part of New Mexico’s Reach for the Stars program, he often leads star parties throughout the state. www.earthriseinstitute.org