Sleepy Grass

Camp Sleepygrass was a magical place, where the Gathering of the Clans was traditionally held for almost two decades. You could almost do place entries for the campsites themselves. Located just outside Cloudcroft, New Mexico, this lovely grassy meadow was about 9000 feet high in the Sacramento Mountains.

• Sites 3 and 4 were the Golden Lions traditional site
• Sites 5 and 6 were the Claw Legion traditional site
• Behind the battlefield was Corsair Hill, just listen for the drums.
• Sites 17-21 (IIRC) was Saracen City, just below the main battlefield.

Other notable sites were Dragonspine on the left side of the road, and the Green Dragons also on the left side.

The camp was stretched out along a long narrow road, which made parking and driving difficult. Being roughly along a line however made wandering from site to site at night a relatively easy affair, despite the grade of the hill.

Sleepygrass was also home to the endangered Checkerspot Butterfly, and its sole food source which grew each summer in the sleepygrass meadow (aka our main battlefield). At some point the forest service decided it was necessary to keep us out to determine if we were having a negative impact on the butterfly population and they moved us to the AtkinsonMeadow site, which was larger, but somehow lacked the magic feeling we had at SleepyGrass. One might note that the impact of widening and paving the road next door with asphault, which went on for a lot longer than the week or so we used it, was not considered a greater impact on the butterfly, but I will admit the meadow would go from grass to dust or mud depending on rainfall by the time we were done from ditching.

LOCATION

Sleepy Grass Campground is located off SH 130, 3 miles south of Cloudcroft. Veer left onto FR24B. Interior roads are gravel. Elevation is 8800 feet.

Sleepy Grass today, looking up to where the merchant's area used to be from the road that ran along the top of the battlefield.... ah, memeories... [1]