White Sands Missle Range

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Crossing the Sacramento Mountains on US 82 we came to the little ski village of Cloudcroft, with a splendid view of the valley ahead and some 5,000 feet below. Here we got our first glimpse of the huge White Sands Missile Range. At 3,200 square miles, it is larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined. Here, at a site called Trinity, the atomic age began at 5:30 AM on July 16, 1945 with the the detonation of an implosion-design plutonium bomb, the culmination of the Manhattan Project. The site is open to the public only 2 days each year, on the first Saturdays of April and October. Ground zero is marked by a small obelisk.
We visited the White Sands National Monument, and took the 12-mile drive through the dune area. The sand is actually gypsum, blown from the nearby mountains, which has settled into a large basin. Because gypsum is water soluble, rain normally absorbs it and carries it to the sea. Since this basin has no outlet, any rainwater simply evaporates, leaving the gypsum in sand form. The wind blows the sand, which is dazzlingly white, into dunes up to sixty feet high. As you get further into the dunes, there is very little plant life - just miles and miles of brilliant white sand. It is a surreal environment.

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Photos

Telephoto Shot from Cloudcroft
That ain't snow down there. It's white sand.

Bob on the Dunes
Equal Time??

The Trinity Site
About 12 miles from here, out on that desert, the atomic age began on July 16, 1945.

The Owl
We kept hearing about this little joint in San Antonio, NM. We just had to try it, and we were not disappointed.

Inside the Owl
Great atmosphere. You just gotta try the Green Chili Cheesburger,