Cathey Peak

Infobox Mountain
Name = Cathey Peak
Photo =
Caption =
Elevation = 9,645 ft (2,940 m) [http://www.topoquest.com/map.asp?lat=32.79525&lon=-105.80885&size=l&u=6&datum=nad27&layer=DRG Cathey Peak and Sacramento Peak on TopoQuest] ]
Prominence =
Location = Otero County, New Mexico, United States
Range = Sacramento Mountains
Coordinates = coord|32|48|27|N|105|47|59|W|type:mountain_region:US
Topographic
USGS Sacramento Peak (NM)
First ascent =
Easiest route = road

Cathey Peak is a peak in the Sacramento Mountains, in the south-central part of the US State of New Mexico. It lies in Otero County, 10 miles (16 km) southeast of the community of Alamogordo.

Sacramento Peak, at 9,255 ft (2,821 m), is a nearby subpeak of Cathey Peak, and is more widely known, due to the presence of several observatories on or near its summit. It is located at coord|32|47|16|N|105|49|13|W|type:mountain_region:US, 1.6 miles (2.6 km) southwest of Cathey Peak, and has a topographic prominence of approximately 115 ft (35 m). One of the two locations of the National Solar Observatory is on the summit itself, and the small town of Sunspot is less than one-half mile (0.8 km) to the northeast. The Apache Point Observatory is located on a promontory about one-half mile south of the summit, [http://www.apo.nmsu.edu/ Apache Point Observatory Homepage] ] and a cosmic ray observatory lies just over a mile to the northeast.

Both peaks lie on the high western crest of the Sacramento Mountains, and hence have gentle, forested eastern slopes, and a steep, high escarpment to the west, descending to the Tularosa Basin. Both peaks can be accessed using New Mexico Scenic Byway 6563 from Cloudcroft.

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