Closed for Missile Testing?!

This morning we woke up to pouring rain, which was unfortunate since we had planned outdoor activities for today - namely hiking at White Sands National Monument. We also checked the website for White Sands, and found that it was going to be closed until 10:30am for missile testing. While waiting both for the rain to pass and for the monument to open, we had a traditional unhealthy road tripping breakfast at IHOP.

The government's White Sands Missle Testing site is a part of New Mexico large enough encompass Rhode Island AND Delaware. When they test the latest weapons technology they have to close the White Sands National Monument as well as one of the major highways, as both are adjacent to the testing site. So unfortunately, we didn't get to see the sunrise over the dunes as we had planned, not that we would have been able to see much with all the cloud cover, anyway. :)

After breaktast we went to the gift shop and visitors' center for White Sands, as the monument itself was still closed. We wandered around in the little displays and watched a 20 minute movie about White Sands while we waited. We also wandered around the gift shop and noticed that they sold cheap plastic sleds for sledding on the sand dunes. I couldn't resist buying one, plus a little wax to make it go faster. :)

At 10:45am the rain had all but stopped, and Dune Road, the 16 mile loop drive througn White Sands, was finally open. The first 5 miles of the drive there were a lot of desert plants like Indian grass and yucca crowding each other for space on the small dunes. We stopped at a little boardwalk into the dunes that lots of plaques describing desert flora and fauna, but not much of a view. Continuing in from the 5 mile mark, the plants suddenly disappeared and we were surrounded on all sides by the pure white gypsum dunes.

 

Dune Road.

Me on the boardwalk in the greener part of White Sands. Note my super cool Roswell alien t-shirt... :D

Pure white sand!

At the 8 mile mark at the back of the loop, we got out of the car and intended to hike the Alkali Flat hiking trail, a 4 mile loop through the dunes marked by partially buried posts in the ground. We carried the sled and I kept a lookout for the tallest, steepest dune. :) The storm clouds still surrounded the desert, we wanted to try and get the hike in before it started raining again. About 1/2 mile in I found the perfect dune and sledded down it and convinced skeptical Gavin to do it, too. He wasn't as enthused as I was, and it was a lot of work to hike back up to the top in the loose sand. :) We continued hiking up and down the dunes along the trail (Akali FLATS, it was not...) and then we started to hear thunder when we were one mile into the trail. We decided it would probably be best to quit the hike before getting stuck in the dunes during thunder and lightning, plus we didn't have any water, having not planned ahead for a 4 mile hike in the desert. :) We walked back along the trail, and I sledded down every dune on the way back. :) We got back to the Jeep just as it started to rain again.

Ready to sled!

Gavin on his only sledding run... :)

We next had to decide our route into Arizona - we could either go south through Tuscon and Phoenix, or we could go north and see Santa Fe and take Route 66 (now Interstate 40). We opted to go see Santa Fe and some of Gavin's friends from residency, who he hadn't seen for a few years. We drove about 5 hours north on Interstate 25 to Santa Fe, and spent a tiny bit of time wandering around the Plaza in downtown Santa Fe, which was full of expensive, touristy stores selling (IMHO) tacky Native-American-inspired clothing and clunky jewelry. The city itself was lovely with its abundance of rust colored adobe-style buildings rather than modern-style construction. We had dinner at Gavin's friends' house, high up above Santa Fe with a beautiful view over the city and the surrounding mountains. We spent the evening sharing a few bottles of wine, then crashed at their house into the most comfortable bed of our trip. Tomorrow we will continue our trip into Arizona!

Panorama of White Sands National Monument.

 

 

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