White Sands National Monument

Today (Wednesday, 10/3) we went to the White Sands National Monument near Almaogorda, New Mexico. We were prepared to be unimpressed coming from the sand dunes of West Michigan, but these pure white sand dunes were pretty impressive! It looked like snow. Children were even sledding down the dunes on saucers. The most amazing thing to me was that even though it was very, very warm out (around 90 degrees), the gypsum sand felt very cool on our bare feet . . . and even felt cold in areas that were shaded! It also had a wonderful inviting texture to play in. The grandkids would love it:)

As we drove through the park marveling at the snow white sand, over the rise we suddenly saw the brilliant colors and patterns of three hot air balloons. I was very excited! I've always wanted to see a hot air balloon up close. The colors were gorgeous. We found out that J Crew was doing a photo shoot with the balloons and they were tethered to the ground and would not be flying. It would have been awesome to see them take off into the sky, but just seeing them was also a treat.

Our next stop was Three Rivers Petroglyphs. There is a small campground and a rough, rocky trail that leads up a hill. Scattered on the hill were many medium-sized rocks and boulders covered with various petroglyphs (21,000 have been documented). It is believed that they were made by the Jornada Mogollon peoples, a prehistoric Indian culture, over 600 years ago. (Some of them looked a little more recent to me:) I hiked up the trail to the first three sets of rock pictures, but it was so hot I went back to wait by the camper and let Mark finish the trail without me.

We considered camping there, but it was only 2pm and so we got back on the road.

We stopped in the town of Captain at the Smokey The Bear Historical site which has lots of information about forest fires, commemorates the history of the iconic Smokey the Bear, and is the burial place of the real Smokey.

"Only YOU can prevent forest fires!"

We also drove through the historic town of Lincoln, but everything, including the Billy the Kid Visitors Center, was closed for the day. So we continued on to Roswell to spend the night at Walmart.

On our last gas fill-up we got 12 mpg . . . Our best gas mileage so far this trip!! Yay!

 

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