“Great
men are meteors designed to burn so that the earth may be lighted.” Napoleon Bonaparte
We had visited White Sands National Monument 25 years ago during our yearlong trip on the road. All either of us remembered was how much fun the kids had “sledding” down the dunes. With a few more decades of wear on our bones, this time our visit had a slightly different focus. We opted to take an evening ranger-led walk out onto the dunes, during which we learned about the unique plant life
and animal life on the dunes,
the geology of how the dunes were created and what
makes them so special. White Sands National
Monument is the largest of only three gypsum dune fields in the world. The sand is very fine, unbelievably white,
and ever moving.
Sunset that first night was a special time on the
dunes,
and the near-full moon was spectacular. Al’s camera with up to 50x zoom made for some
fun photography of the moon.
Back in Ruidoso, Al had done a quick check on the
Internet and had discovered that the full moon would be occurring on the second
night in our new location. He had read
that the night of the full moon has become a very special celestial event at
White Sands National Monument, and this month the occasion would be celebrated on
the dunes with a mariachi band concert that would start just after moonrise. We were game!
We arrived early and took an opportunity to enjoy a
picnic supper, quickly copying the locals and figuring out how to park to get
much needed shade for our picnic table.
A pre-concert photoshoot of the band at the top of
a nearby dune must have produced some pretty awesome publicity shots.
Our vanity shots were a little more understated…
As concert time approached, we picked our spot on
the dunes.
Shortly after moonrise over the distant Sacramento
Mountains, the music began and we were treated to an authentic mariachi band concert
in one of the loveliest venues I could imagine.
There was one more experience at White Sands
National Monument that we wanted to attempt, and that was an early morning
5-mile hike around the Alkali Flat trail, which led through the heart of the
dunes to an ancient lakebed that had occupied much of the Tularosa Basin during
the last ice age.
We had been told to take plenty of water, to start
early, and to allow about 3 hours for the hike.
The temperature was ideal at the start of the hike at 7 a.m., and we
felt pretty exhilarated.
It didn’t take long before the trail had left all
trace of civilization behind. Incredibly,
there we were, all alone on the wildly beautiful dunes, in near-total silence thanks
to the area’s restricted air space.
We spotted some animal life in addition to several
dune features we had learned about on the ranger-led twilight stroll just a few
nights ago—
sand sculptures…
pedestals with plant life…
tracks left behind by dune movement…
and this very cooperative and photogenic nearly
white lizard.
Midway, we took a few minutes of rest for a snack
and water,
but soon it was time to get moving on.
We would have loved to linger, but our safe 3-hour window was rapidly closing and the temp was rising quickly. Toward the end of the hike, within a matter of minutes, we were VERY aware of the heat; but by that time, fortunately, we had already sighted the parking lot in the distance.
We felt this hike ranked near the top of our
all-time favorite hikes in terms of both beauty and uniqueness.
These perfectly undisturbed waves of sand may serve as a seed of inspiration and become an overall quilting pattern in a future quilt project.
One of the local attractions that had caught our
attention was the National Solar Observatory, situated at one of the high
points in the Sacramento Mountains in a place called Sunspot, New Mexico. Our friends Barb and Jim had never been to
Sunspot and were eager to accompany us on a day trip to visit the observatory,
which at 9200 feet is ideally situated far from any major source of air
pollution, with plenty of sunshine and dry air.
Scientists from all over the world submit applications for slots of research
time on the Dunn Solar Telescope. Our tour guide informed us that the proposals
that are deemed most worthy get the longest time slots on the days of the year
with the most sunlight. Sounds logical…
The tower which houses the Dunn Solar Telescope is
136 feet tall with an additional 228 feet below ground! Light from the sun enters two mirrors at the
top of the tower and is then guided through a vacuum tube to a primary mirror
far below ground, then back up into scientific equipment for data
collection on optical benches.
We finished out our special day with our friends
with a short stop in western-town touristy Cloudcroft,
then back to “Alamo” for our first taste of Caliches
yummy frozen custard, and finally a rematch game of Carbles around our campsite
at sunset.
For those of you who are wondering, we did make that visit to one of the pistachio farm/vineyards that we had spotted on the outskirts of town. We were told at Heart of the Desert Vineyards that New Mexico soil and sunshine are a perfect combination for wine production. After being offered generous free wine tasting, we were hooked on two samples—one a Pistachio Rosé (yes, a unique pistachio flavor incorporated into a rosé wine!) and a semi-sweet Malvasia Bianca (new to us, but could become a new favorite).
Our inaugural week in the desert at Holloman AFB was an enjoyable one. I got in an afternoon of pool time (one of my weaknesses), and the RV’s air conditioning worked like a champ and kept us cool and comfy. We loved our daytime and nighttime visits to White Sands and will always remember the stunning majesty of its ever-moving landscape of white dunes.
“I wanna be runnin' when the sand runs out."
Song by Rascal Flatts
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