Day 15 – To Alamogordo and White Sands NM

We left Albuquerque and headed to Alamogordo, NM which is just North of White Sands National Park.  But before we leave, Carmen took this picture of the old car and trailer.  I think it is a 1954 Hudson Commodore.

We traveled south on I-25 and stopped at the road marker for the Rio Salado Sand Dunes.  The others with us on this RV trip do not stop here with us and they continue to Alamogordo.

Back on the road, we turned east on route 380 at San Antonio, NM and passed the Trinity Site.  This is the location of the first detonation of a nuclear bomb conducted as part of the Manhattan Project.  There is not much here now and the land is fairly flat.  It is now listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.

While still on route 380, we pass (with a short stop) the “Valley of Fires” (Carrizozo Malpais lava flow) which is an overlook and boardwalk through the lava field.  (The field is 45 miles long, and varies in width from 2 to 5 miles.  The lava flow also has an average depth of 45 feet with the thickest depth around 165 feet.)

There is a walkway that takes you through part of the lava flow.  You can see the boardwalk meandering through this section of the park.

We get into Alamogordo and setup the motor home then took off to check out the winery and pistachio shop and get dinner.  Outside of the winery they had this huge pistachio.

Pistachio trees and grape vines.  We purchased some pistachio nuts and a bottle of wine, after a wine tasting of course.

I found this t-shirt while walking around the shop and found it interesting.  Ha, Ha, Ha, how true is that?

On the way back to the RV we drove by this adobe church.

From our campground we can see the White Sands Dunes in the distance.

Tomorrow we are going to the dunes.