Day 9

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What winds we had last night! The whole camper shook and swayed. We must have had gusts over 50 mph. It did not make for a restful night.
We stopped at the Brantley Lake SP welcome center on the way out to get advice on which road to take since the winds were supposed to be bad again today. They recommended we head north to Roswell then west on Hwy 70 through Ruidoso, down to Alamagordo and Las Cruces.
At Roswell we ate lunch and looked in a couple of the souvenir shops for alien junk. Junk it was. The road from Roswell to Alamogordo was great. It went from desert to Hondo River Valley (still lots of cactus growing up steep hillsides) to the pines of the Lincoln National Forest, with a dusting of snow. As we reached higher elevations past Ruidoso Downs, there was a little more snow, but mostly in sheltered areas. Coming down the west side of the mountains we could see the sunlight glinting off the white sands with the beautiful mountains beyond.
We had to stop to see the White Sands National Monument. The white sand dunes were amazing, white as snow, drifting and changing with the winds, and with cactus and yucca poking through in some places, farther in the dunes were pristine.
As we came over the pass on Hwy 70 toward Las Cruces, we could see that it was snowing in the mountains.
Tonight is supposed to be down into the mid 20's but not as windy, thank goodness.
Tomorrow we head to Tucson.

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Comments

[Barbara]

White Sands are truly white! Gorgeous.