New Mexico Outback!

Our first camping spot was Aguirre Springs campground just over the mountains from Las Cruzes. It is a BLM campground with about 30 some sites and pit toilets. If you have a National Park annual pass the camping is free. There is no water or power at the campground but water is available 4 miles away at the host's site. With a 20 gallon tank we can go for a long time without water. The campground is nestled up under the cliffs of the Organ Mountains, with spectacular jagged peaks reaching into the sky. The sunrises are fantastic! There are two very nice hikes from the campground, one a loop hike through the rocks and cactus, the other going up to Baylor Pass to see the valley on the other side of the range. Both are about 4+ miles round trip. We met some nice people, one couple from the Netherlands who regularly come to the U.S. for RVing, renting a rig and spending a month at a time. They say there are good deals to be had if you do a delivery for the rental company, with rates as low as $10/day in some cases. 

Organ Mountains

Aguirre Springs BLM Campground

Organ Mountains

Big trees even in the desert!

Sunrise, Organ Mountains 

Sunrise, Organ Mountains

Wildlife

Organ Mountains

the tough life!

White Sands National Monument was our next destination, just a few miles from the Springs. The dunes are simply amazing! We felt like we were driving up in the mountains in winter with piles of snow along the road and a hard packed dirty ice surface on the road. They also allow sledding on plastic disks on the dunes near the road so we saw crowds of people racing down the dunes on snow disks! These dunes are by far the largest gypsum dunes in the world, dwarfing other sites, with it's 275 square mile expanse. The next biggest is a mere smear 10 sq. miles in Mexico. The gypsum comes from the surrounding mountains which are just full of the stuff, dating back to the ancient sea beds that are the reason for most of the landscapes in this area. Gypsum is quite soluble in water, so it gets washed down the hills into the Tularosa Basin where it forms shallow lakes. These lakes have no outlet so the gypsum accumulates and concentrates. During dry periods the water evaporates leaving the gypsum which then crystallizes to form selenite, a soft mineral. For 10,000 years wind and weather have been breaking down these soft crystals and blowing them around to form dunes. The secret to these dunes is the water that exists right below the surface of the area. This high water table anchors the base of the dunes and keeps them from blowing away entirely. There are several kinds of dunes and they move at different rates and have different shapes. The youngest dunes romp along at up to 35 ft. per year, the older dunes get slowed down by plants anchoring themselves in the sand. As you can imagine, the plants and animals here have some pretty amazing adaptations which enable them to survive in a very harsh environment. The plants have varied and interesting ways of anchoring themselves and getting access to water. The animals have changed over the years to be light colored in order to blend into their blindingly white environment. The lizards actually have quite a blue tinge to them. We went for a nice long ramble in the dunes and did a very informative walk with a ranger at sunset, where we learned all about the adaptations of plants in the dunes.

White Sands NM

White Sands NM

Looks like snow, eh???

White Sands NM

White Sands NM, interdune area

Special camouflage

Not easy being a plant in a moving world!

By this time we were about ready for a real shower, so we found our way to Oliver Lee State Park, not far from White Sands. Showers, laundry by hand, charging up the batteries and some fabulous views were all available. Everything but trees! Fortunately it was not overly hot since there was not a lot of shade. I wandered around the historical areas of the park, enjoyed the cactus garden and scoped out the hikes for the next day. We got up early enough to beat the sun as we climbed the hill to get up Dog Canyon, topping out on a series of benches that wind up the canyon. We were treated to lovely canyon views and rugged cliffs all around.  It was about a 3 mile hike into an old stone cabin built by ranchers in the 1930's. It is very hard to imagine cattle ranching in this country but when they started doing it here it was during a wetter climate and there was more food for the cows and water for orchards and farming. Dog Canyon still has spring water running down it, not a lot, but enough to create pretty pools, sculpted rocks and seeps filled with ferns and water plants. The original settlers built quite a large dam and irrigation canals to water their crops. One of the settlers built long primitive fences made of the stone blocks that are everywhere. 

Oliver Lee SP

Sunset Tularosa Basin

Spring from Dog Canyon

Spring from Dog Canyon

Pretty springs in the desert

Sunset over Frenchy's homestead

Sunset in Dog Canyon

We spent some time in Alamogordo, getting caught up with life on the internet, shopping, and getting organized. We visited the Space History Museum and spent a good part of the day there. I was quite impressed with how pivotal New Mexico was in the development of rockets, bombs and space exploration. Thayer showed off his piloting talents by landing the space shuttle, at the most difficult level on the simulator, on his second try. It is a very good museum! It was a lot of information to process.

History of Space Museum

History of Space Museum

History of Space Museum

rockets

Next, we found ourselves heading up into the Sacramento Mountains east of Alamogordo, the first stop being the National Solar Observatory in Sunspot, NM. They have a good visitor center with the most difficult information packed into the smallest space I have yet seen. It was very dense and took a long time to get through. They play a NOVA video which was very informative and had spectacular footage of the sun and it's wild and crazy activities. I'm not so worried about asteroids anymore, one giant burp from the sun and we'll all be toast. We then were able to see two of the big telescopes that scientists from all over the world come to for their research. Their most impressive telescope is the Dunn Solar Telescope, weighing in at 200 tons and measuring 136 ft above the surface and 228 ft. underground! The main part of the scope floats on a pool of mercury weighing 10 tons, this allows for smooth and easy movement of the scope as it tracks the sun across the sky. It was pretty amazing! The observatory is located on the top of Sacramento Peak, about 9200 ft. above sea level, still pretty chilly this time of year. We spent the night just down the road in a Lincoln NF campground.

Dunn Observatory

Other Sunspot Observatories

control room

Masses of electronics!

We are high up in the mountains around here, the campgrounds are at about 7800 feet. Presently we are near the White Mountain Wilderness Area, lovely camping and great hiking. More on this in the next post!