Cathey Peak is a peak in the Sacramento Mountains, in the south-central part of the

U.S. State In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

. It lies in Otero County, southeast of the community of

Alamogordo Alamogordo () is a city in and the county seat of Otero County, New Mexico, Otero County, New Mexico, United States. A city in the Tularosa Basin of the Chihuahuan Desert, it is bordered on the east by the Sacramento Mountains (New Mexico), Sac ...

. Sacramento Peak, at , is a nearby subpeak of Cathey Peak, and is more widely known due to the presence of several

observatories An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysics, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. Th ...

on or near its summit. It is located at , southwest of Cathey Peak, and has a

topographic prominence In topography, prominence or relative height (also referred to as autonomous height, and shoulder drop in US English, and drop in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to the lowest contour line encircling ...

of approximately . The

Sunspot Solar Observatory The Sunspot Solar Observatory (SSO) is an astronomy, astronomical observatory designed for the study of the Sun. The observatory is operated by New Mexico State University (NMSU) and the U.S. National Solar Observatory (NSO). It is split between ...

is on the summit itself, and the site of this observatory incorporates the small town of

Sunspot Sunspots are temporary spots on the Sun's surface that are darker than the surrounding area. They are one of the most recognizable Solar phenomena and despite the fact that they are mostly visible in the solar photosphere they usually aff ...

, less than one-half mile (0.8 km) to the northeast. The

Apache Point Observatory The Apache Point Observatory (APO; obs. code: 705) is an astronomical observatory located in the Sacramento Mountains in Sunspot, New Mexico, United States, approximately south of Cloudcroft. The observatory is operated by New Mexico State Un ...

is located on a promontory about one-half mile (0.8 km) south of the summit. 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 The Tularosa Basin is a graben basin in the Basin and Range Province and within the Chihuahuan Desert, east of the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico and West Texas, in the Southwestern United States. Geography The Tularosa Basin is located pr ...

. Both peaks can be accessed using New Mexico Scenic Byway 6563 from Cloudcroft.

References

Mountains of New Mexico Landforms of Otero County, New Mexico Mountains of Otero County, New Mexico {{NewMexico-geo-stub