Las Cruces and White Sands

Duststorm

On Saturday, we left Roswell and Bottomless Lakes State Park for a long and harrowing (for two reasons) drive to Las Cruces, NM.

Number 1: The altitude difference between Roswell and Cloudcroft, NM (roughly halfway through the trip) is about 5000 feet up. Then we descended the same 5000 feet in a shorter amount of mileage before reaching the Tularosa Basin, just outside Alamogordo. Yikes. That was a whole lotta gas going up and a whole lotta braking going down.

Leasburg Dam State Park

Number 2: The weather forecast indicated that we should expect strong winds sustained at 25-35mph, with gusts up to 65 mph. Wow. We hit all of that. The wind was knocking the RV all over the road, it was hard to stay in the lane at times. What we didn't expect (and should have) was the duststorm created by so much wind in such a dry area of the country. As we drove south and reached the Tularosa Basin between Alamogordo and Las Cruces, we saw nothing. The visibility was, at most, about 1/4 mile for portions of the trip and it was the worst in the Basin. We could see only the faintest outline of mountains in the distance. After setting up camp at Leasburg Dam State Park in Las Cruces with the dirt and sand stinging our legs and bare ankles, we spent the evening recovering from the white-knuckle trip.

On Sunday, we awoke to a much calmer wind and a crystal clear view of mountains just beyond the park. Wow, what a sight! And to compare that view with the tan colored sky that blotted out everything the day before, including the skyline and most of the buildings along our route...it was fantastic to see the mountains.

We headed back to the Tularosa Basin to see the White Sands Missile Range Museum and Rocket Park. After passing through security, we walked around the Rocket Park staring at old missiles and guidance systems, as well as the flying saucer the Army claims was the one that crashed in Roswell (though the saucer wasn't launched until 20 years AFTER the Roswell Incident...). In any case, we found the museum closed on Sundays, despite their website and brochures saying otherwise. Too bad, we were really looking forward to the history of the missile program in the area.

Next on our agenda was the White Sands National Monument, a park that protects the extremely unusual geological phenomena of this area.

The two mountain ranges on either side of the Tularosa Basin, the San Andres and Sacramento Mountains, were formed 250 million years ago and then the basin collapsed inward about 70 millions years ago. The Basin does not have any rivers or streams that carry water and sediment away from it, so the snow melt and rain that falls on the mountains around it, flows into Lake Lucero at the lowest point in the basin. The 'lake' then dries up in the desert heat and leaves behind selenite crystals (gypsum sediment in crystalline form) which break apart in the strong winds into gypsum flakes which bounce around until they become sand sized pieces. The smaller the pieces, the whiter they look...thus the white sand dunes.

The dunes are extremely inhospitable places to live for all but a few animals and some plants. We learned about a bunch of them, especially the soapwood yucca, a plant whose every part can be used for something.

We headed out of the park to visit Alamogordo and the New Mexico Museum of Space History. We drove around the town a little while before venturing up to the museum, where we found a 4-story display of space related stuff and information, along with pictures of all the astronauts inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame. We also watched an IMAX movie, Everest, about a team that climbed to the top of Mount Everest and their struggles in the harsh climate. It was very interesting.

After the museum and movie, we returned to the White Sands National Monument for their sunset stroll and tour with a park ranger. Since we were a couple of hours early for the ranger guided tour, we hiked a part of the trail that leads to the alkali flats and Lake Lucero, where the crystalline form of the gypsum begins its decline into sand. We wandered up and down and all around the dunes and felt like we were walking on the moon. We even saw families sledding down the dunes. It was so much fun!

On the tour, the ranger gave a detailed talk about the native plants and animals in the park and pointed out some of the tracks made by a beetle, a jackrabbit, a sparrow, and even a coyote. After the tour, we watched the sun set behind the San Andres Mountains and the pretty white dunes.

What a busy but great day!