White Sands....Sledding in 104 Degree Weather

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We took 380 all the way into Carrizozo, NM and stayed at the Valley of the Fire Recreation Area ($18/night). God provides the most beautiful landscape: on one side of the trailer there are breathtaking mountains and on the other side are amazing volcanic rock formations that stretch on for miles and miles. The only problem that arose from camping here is that the wind gusts that kept us up most of the night shaking the trailer, we even at one point parked the truck along side the trailer to create a bit of a wind break which can't really say helped.

After the long windy night we awoke to another beautiful morning and thankfully most of the wind had passed, but that beast of a sun was working overtime already. Nothing else to do, but put on a hat and shades and face it. We then headed south to spend the day at another location that our annual park pass got us into White Sands National Monument, but without one it is only $16 for Adults and $5 for kids under 15. My daughter said that this was very, very, very fun but very, very, very hot; I would have to agree. As we entered the park we suddenly became surrounded by huge dunes of sand as we continued the road became hard packed sand given the resemblance of snow. We explored around in the truck to find a good place to enter the dunes. We purchased a used sled at the gate and ran up and down the dunes taking turns sledding; even the dog sledded with us. Unfortunately the heat was so severe that we had to put her in the truck and turn the air on for 15 minutes at a time. The sand was beautiful and white, but had the texture of sugar. Many areas were packed so hard that it felt as if you were walking on concrete. Around 2:00 we could not handle the heat any longer and had to head home with a short stop for root beer floats. At the time we left the park it was up to 104 degrees but during our hour drive back to the campsite a band of showers came through and blessed us with a cool 72 degrees at the campsite. We were fortunate enough to get to enjoy some relaxation outside in the cool weather. During our time outside we had the sweetest stray kitty come hand with us. We have him a large bowl of Mandy's food and he ate almost all of it. I guess we are in for another windy night of sleep.

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