Blogs from Alamogordo, New Mexico, United States, North America - page 3

New Mexico White Sands, Ruidoso and Tularosa Basin I headed to visit old friends and Chris on his assignment in New Mexico Dec 21-23, 2008. We went straight to the White Sands National Park in the Tularosa Basin. We spent time dune surfing, sliding and making sand angels in the gypsum powder deposited from the west winds of the San Andres Mountians. This 245 mile area doesn't drain as it has no water source. This was the area that the first atomic bomb detination site - Trinity in 1945. God blessed us with the same color palette of Joesph's technicolor dream coat. The next day we headed to Three Rivers Petroglyphs. This area has 21,000 etchings in all shapes and sizes from the Jornada Mogollon tribes from 1000-1400AD. This hike was breath taking with the ... read more

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 ... read more