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October 12
We left Santa Fe heading for Las Cruces NM. We got off to a bit of a late start, and decided to go the "back way". What a great decision. The roads were in fantastic shape and there was hardly any traffic. In places it was very much desert, in other places it was very green, almost like a forest. Many parts were deserted and looked like ghost towns, yet it was all still beautiful.
When we reached Alamogordo, about an hour from Las Cruces, we saw a number of RV Parks and also realized that we were close to the destinations we wanted to see. We found a state park that was actually very spacious and beautiful, countless different shapes and sizes of cactus, with a canyon in our back yard - for $14 a night. Probably one of the nicest place we've stayed.
October 13
Our main destination in this area is the White Sands National Monument. It was only about 10 miles from our campground. On the way in, there was quite a lot of vegetation on the dunes, but the deeper we drove into the park, the less vegetation there was. These dunes weren't overly high, but they were soooooo white, I think we figured out where the sand for expensive golf courses comes from. The sand was also very firm, and quite easy to hike, so we decided to do the 5 km loop.
After lunch we went to the White Sands Missile Range to see the outdoor missile museum. There were about 40 missiles, dating from the early 50's to present. It was a bit overwhelming to see the different sizes of missiles and to realize that they still test missiles here. There are signs on the highway telling you that you may be delayed for an hour if a missile test is in progress. We had to present our ID and wait while they did a background check on us to see if they would let us in. On the way back to our campsite, we also had to present our ID to the border control who had blocked off both lanes of the highway to ensure we would go through their site.
Back at our campsite we were able to have a small fire, enjoy the moon and the stars.
October 14
We headed into town for a fairly short mountain bike ride around the area at the base of the mountains. It was mostly the size of ATV tracks, but we did manage to spend a bit of time making our way through the "vegetation" on our own single tracks. At one point, we saw a couple of large skeletons, (not sure what they were, but the heads were about a foot long), so we named the ride "Never Ride Alone". We had a bit of a downer at the end as Karen got a huge cactus spike in her tire. Fortunately it stayed in place, clicking every tire rotation, until we got back to the truck. When we pulled it out of her tire….the slime didn't work.
After lunch in the trailer we hiked into Dog Canyon, right at the visitor centre of our campsite. We had no idea that we were going to be climbing 600' in less than a km, and it was hot - 32 degrees plus. Shortly into the hike, Kevin spooked a snake…but it wasn't a rattler, and it didn't spook Karen J. This turned out to be the cacti photography hike, as we saw so many different varieties, and they were all thriving beautifully. There was a nice level area after we reached the top of the first climb, so we hiked another half mile before heading back to rest and cool off.
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