Feb.2010, White Sands Missile Range & National Monument

From Balmorhea State Park we made a comfortable drive (250 miles or so) to White Sands Missile Range, north of Las Cruces, N.M., where the base has a small campground. As we came over the Organ Mts. we could look down and see the Range (the base) tucked up against the mountains and then beyond the base it was high desert until the next range of mountains.

Our site was at the upper end of a row of 8 campers and we had an unobstructed view of the mountains.

The weather was mostly chilly while we were there, 50s to 60s in the day and quite a bit colder at night, and mostly sunny or partly cloudy except for one day when a cold front blew through and we were happy to be in such a heavy camper. The wind buffeted us all day and into the night and the rain/sleet was heavy and persistent. Terrible storm. But just one day of confinement.

The day after the storm we went on a trip......... up into the mountains above Alamogordo to the Apache Indian town of Mescalero and aside from a charming little museum and the small, friendly Mescalero woman running it, the area was very depressing. The reservation has a casino/golf course/restaurant complex that was very nice but the proceeds from it do not seem to have spread out into the community. The statues above are part of a circle of bronze cast warriors at the entrance of the casino/hotel.

A view from the missile range of the Organ Mountains.

On another day we made a second trip to White Sands National Monument about 30 miles down the road from the base. We made a quick visit there in 2008 and I had wanted to return and this time do some hiking out onto the sand dunes.

The dogs really liked getting out onto the openness of the dunes and even though we couldn't unleash them they did as much running about and playing as they could. Of course their abundant energy might have something to do with riding around in the truck with only the window for entertainment.

The so called 'bushes' you see in the following picture are actually the branch tips of a Cottonwood tree that the sands have gradually overwhelmed. It is still living as long as the tips can receive sunlight. This is what happens to all flora here as the ever moving gypsum sands overtake them. Plants either adapt (as does the Cottonwood and the Soaptree Yucca, in the picture above, by elongating its' stem to stay above the sand) ...or lose the battle and get buried.

The Monument is 275 sq. miles large and is at the northern edge of the Chihuahuan Desert. If you want to learn more about the monument here's the link: http://www.nps.gov/whsa/index.htm

Bye for now. Following will be a post about Bosque del Apache!