July 1, 2012 Las Cruces to White Sands National Monument, Three Rivers Petroglyphs, Roswell NM, and, Guadalupe Mts. National Park

Out of bed again at 5:30 our new rising time, but another day with many miles to go and things to see.

This morning took us to White Sands National Monument.  This remarkable place has the largest deposit of gypsum sand in the country.  It was full of really beautiful, fine white sands.  Now coming from Minnesota, we were struck by how much this sand looked like ice and snow. Several places you could have sworn it was a snow filled day (okay, the temp was starting to rise into the 90’s already, but it COULD have felt like snow.)  We so enjoyed the 8 mile drive into the park (actually the only road there) and then took a short walk on a boardwalk where we had the chance to get out in between some of the dunes to see a nice sampling of the plants and reptile and insect life there.  Patti took the opportunity to climb up a dune.  The sand was really packed and she hardly left a trail.  People had brought sleds and were doing some dune sledding.  Again, it would have been nice to stay, but time to leave. More things to do.  This is beginning to sound like a pattern.

We drove through the White Sands Missile testing area.   This was rather eerie, as it was in the far north of this area that they did the original testing of the atomic bomb at the Trinity site.  This is generally restricted to the public, but we were very aware of it as we drove.  We were also interested in hearing that a couple times each week, they shoot more missiles and so shut down the Monument, and the major highway, for a few hours.  We were glad that didn’t hit in our little window of time we could visit.

How could Patti pass up the chance to get her photo taken with The World’s Largest Pistachio?  She couldn’t, of course.

Next, we had quite a treat in visiting The Three Rivers Petroglyphs Monument site.  There, just a quarter mile or less from the parking lot, we began seeing some of the over 20,000 petroglyphs that are in this area.  We walked a short trail in which we could literally see hundreds of ancient petroglyphs, so close we could clamor right up and could have touched them if we had wanted (but of course we were very careful.) 
 There was everything from circles and spirals, to people and faces to animals including some terrific big horned sheep, and some rather abstract designs.  We were delighted, although, of course, the 100-degree temps were sneaking back up on us as we finished our hike at noon.  This is one of the premier places for this ancient rock art in the country.

On our map, we realized something we hadn’t seen in our earlier planning. We would be driving by the site of the Smokey Bear Historical Park.  There was an exhibit all about Smokey, who was orphaned and singed as a 2 month old cub, in a fire not far from there.  We got to read about and see so much about the story and how he because such a symbol and advocate for preventing unwanted forest fires.  He lived for 26 years in the National Zoo in Washington.  He got so much mail every week from children that they created his own zip code.  He got the most mail of anyone in Washington, including the president. After he died, he was brought back to Capitan, NM where he was buried on the grounds of this park.  Both of us were raised with Smokey and it was neat to see where it all began.

Next, we found that we would be driving by historic Fort Stanton.  This was the primary post for the US Army in their war on the Apache.  We learned a lot about the role of the fort during that era and afterwards, including it being a hospital for soldiers with tuberculosis and then an internment camp for Germans during WWII.  We were struck in talking to the docent about a plan for this coming week when a group of Apache warriors would perform a war dance at the Fort to both bless veterans and as an act of reconciliation.  We found those in charge of the interpretation to be working hard at telling all of the story, including that of the Native Americans and the “buffalo soldiers (black soldiers in the West)..

THEN we really changed gears and drove into Roswell, NM to catch a bit of the annual UFO Festival.  We went to the International UFO Museum and saw lots of info about the supposed UFO crash in Roswell in 1947 as well other UFO and space-related displays.  Park way through our time, the flying saucer hovering over the aliens began to light up and smoke. Very fun and dramatic. The immediate are around the museum in downtown Roswell had lots of alien decorations and products for sale.  Having just come from the Smokey the Bear displays, we especially enjoyed the sign saying, “Only you can prevent mass hysteria”.  

Then it was time to climb back into the car and drive two hours to Guadalupe National Park in Western Texas to spend the night camping in the cool weather.  Yah!  Cool weather, clear sky and an early full moon, sitting on the picnic table typing this blog.  Life is good.