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Published: March 25th 2010
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White Snow, White Sands and Missiles - Amazing Day
Our Sacramento Mountain river camp site in Ruidoso stood at an altitude of 6000 feet. Overnight we had rain and sleet but all was sunny by Wednesday morning and off we went. To get over the mountains we had to go through the pass at an altitude of 8000 feet, and there was snow, lots of snow. It was a beautiful drive up through the pass and working our way down towards Alamogordo. Coming down off the mountain you could see the White Sands. From 40 miles away it looked like more snow; a long unbroken white stripe in the desert plateau between the Sacramento and San Andres Mountains. In Alamogordo we made a quick stop at the Museum of Space History. Turning into the road to the museum we finally sighted the elusive ROAD RUNNER. The black and white skinny chicken like creature ran right across the road in front of us; head bobbing, tail wagging. We almost wrecked trying to get a photo, but too many cars. At least we got a great look at it in movement; a very funny little bird indeed. My day was made early!
Loop Road into the Park
White Sands National Monument White Sands National Monument has a sixteen mile loop drive with information markers along the way. Sand, as you may know, only designates the size of a particle, not the composition. It may be quartz sand, like we see on the beach, or gypsum sand like you see at White Sands National Monument. Gypsum is a mineral, a soft mineral, easily scratched with a fingernail. It is also water soluble. The sedimentary rock of the San Andres Mountains is full of Gypsum. Snowmelt and rainfall in the spring dissolve the gypsum. It’s carried down to the base of the mountains by ground water and deposited into one very large lake called Lake Lucero and many shallow lakes called playas. The water evaporates and leaves the precipitated gypsum crystals (sand) which is then blown by northeast winds into the dunes. What’s really cool is that these dunes move just like any other, gaining height with the wind until the top of the dune tips over to the base on the other side, starting the build up once again and slowly advancing, in this case to cover 275 square miles. Kids buy or rent disks to slide down the dunes; there
MIssiles on Display
White Sands Missile Range - New Mexico are picnic areas under shaded shelters with barbeque grills. Just like at the beach, but no water at all, not even drinking water. It is, after all, a desert, the Chihuahuan Desert, which extends into Arizona, west Texas and Mexico. There are a few plants and animas that live in the dunes, mostly nocturnal; horned lark (which of course I was looking for), a small fox and mice. There is a cool animal, Lesser Earless Lizard, who has paled to camouflage. Plants include Creosote Bush, Tarbush, yuccas and various kinds of cacti. The particles are very fine and white, enough so that Paul could make “sand angels.
Next stop, White Sands Missile Range, where we found “But I really am a Rocket Scientist” bumper stickers for the grand kids. Security is very tight here, necessarily so I’m sure. We had to show identification and car registration and were not allowed to take photos except for the rocket field display. The display is super, all of the research and military rockets are available to look at and read about and there is a museum with a great variety of interesting atomic age rocketry history including the first atomic bomb test
Flying Saucer
This "flying saucer" was on display at the missile range. The info said it was the kind being tested at Roswell at the time of the "incident" at Roswell. The implication is that this test saucer was mistaken for a real "flying saucer". at the Trinity site. They only allow visitors to the Trinity Site on the first Saturdays of April and October; that would be very interesting. They also have Paleo-Indian, mining and ranching, historical displays and hundreds of old photos.
We continue on to Las Cruces and check into the KOA, a very high site overlooking the entire town in the valley; lights sparkling as if on a Christmas tree in the dark - a fantastic end to an amazing day. Whenever I am discouraged I will think about the view coming down the Sacramento Mountain range looking across the plateau to the San Andres’. We, who imagine ourselves to be the omnipotent species on this Earth, are, in reality, insignificant; only a second on the geological timeline. We run around thinking our own view of reality and what we believe reality should be is important - its not. Really! It’s enough to be a good person, to do your best.
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John & Susan
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Carlsbad
I saw your pics. Makes the Acropolis look like a walk in the park!. See you in 3 weeks!