Day 16 –White Sands National Monument

We went to White Sands National Park this morning.  We left early, because we know that we spend more time than normal to hike around and other stuff.  Here’s Carmen at the visitor’s center before we began driving in the park. 

The visitor’s buildings are all in the Spanish adobe style.  I like these buildings, they are so nice.

We are beginning to enter the sand dunes and you can see them in the near distance.

There are all kinds of tracks around the dunes, if you look for them. 

Carmen on one of the dune trails we were walking on.  You can see one of the placards right behind Carmen.

More of the dune trail we are walking along.

Some of the trees and bushes we have seen in the dunes.  This tree is dead, but there were some that were alive.

The dune grasses looked like they were flowering and beginning to go to seed.  They looked too good to ignore.

Some of the flowers are pretty amazing. 

This grove of trees is in the middle of the sand dunes.  As the sand gets higher around the tree, it will kill the tree.

Almost at the end of the trail we came to this higher dune.  Here I am jumping, as best I can, off of the top of this dune.

Back on the road, we had to stop and take a picture of the sand spilling over onto the road.  It looks like a snow drift after being plowed.

The paved road ended and the “sand” road started.  When we got out the road looks like an ice road, with the cracks and transparency.

Even though I’ve been looking for a horned lizard, I only saw some tracks.  Alas even though I was looking, no Tarantulas today, only a lone beetle.  Check out this beetle I found walking around the dunes. 

Looks like a mountain range, but it is only sand!

We stopped on the side of the road and climbed one of the dunes, this one about 250 feet high.  Looking out from the top of the dune you can see the expanse of the dunes.  You can see my car on the left side of the picture.

We parked at the Alkali Flats trail, a 5 mile round trip.  The hike goes through the Gypsum Dunes and ends at the Alkali Flats.  There really are no markers, or if there are, they are too few, so to make Carmen comfortable, I took a picture of our sneaker prints so we could follow our tracks back.

The dunes are endless and after hiking for about a half hour we had this view.

Wow!  Carmen and I walked all over the dunes and had enough of walking on sand and were getting ready to head back until saw some people sliding down the dunes.  When they asked if we wanted to try, we borrowed a snow (ah, sorry, sand) saucer to slide down the sand dunes.  Fantastic!  The sand is so soft, almost like a powder.  I should point out that doing down was easy, getting back up in the soft sand, not so much.

I had to Jump another dune again.  The sand is so soft; you can’t get good purchase for a good jump.

Finally, after returning to the visitor’s center to use the facilities, I found a lizard.  There were all kinds of tracks in the sand, but no lizard.  Now I find it.

  

Leaving White Sands Dunes National Monument we headed to the US Army Missile Museum.  Here are some of the mountains we passed on our way.  

The only problem, when we got to the US Army Missile Museum they had closed it down because of a possible collapse of one of the rockets.  Whether that is true or not makes no difference, we didn’t get to go inside.  We couldn’t take pictures from outside the gate and they would not let us in. 

As we were driving back, we passed this flatbed, from Quebec, with these two aircraft wings.

We are now on our way to the Three Rivers Petroglyphs Site, which we’ll set as its own blog post.

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.

Day 14 – Balloon Fiesta – Special Shape Rodeo

Once again, we are up at 4:30 am to reach the shuttle to the Balloon Launch site.  We are again in time for the dawn patrol, but for some reason today it seems darker. 

While we were waiting for the special shape balloons to take the field, we walked around a little.  Here Carmen and I found NASA cut-outs and decided to take a picture with them.

Some of the handlers of the Darth Vader balloon.  Where’s my light saber?

I love this picture; not sure if I should be scared or happy he posed for me.

First some of the regular balloons will go up since the special shapes will not begin the process until the operators can see clearly.  Six balloons all lined up in a row waiting to finish the inflation process.

I love all of the colors in the balloons.  Standing next to the flame, heating the air in the envelope, felt nice on this cold morning.

When dawn comes, the special shapes start inflating.  We see the woodpecker balloon along with the Arc balloon in the background.

More and more of the special shaped balloons start to inflate.  There are so many special shapes; you cannot possibly see them all. This two-faced clown shows both happy and sad faces.

Other balloons are inflating and the field is beginning to fill up.  The Panda Bear balloon is right in the middle of the action.

Balloons are now up in the air along with some of the special shapes.  You can see Humpty Dumpty is in the air and you can see the tail of a cow on the left.  And the Woodpecker still has not gone up yet.

Ah, so sad, he is being left behind. 

There are many balloons still on the ground, but looking up I can see about 25 or so already in the air.

Looks like the woodpecker balloon has not gone up yet and I wonder if it will go up at all, but now it has company.  There are many other balloons in different stages of inflation process.

Like I said there are so many special shapes and patterned balloons; you cannot possibly see them all.  The fish is peaking out from behind the other balloons.  They are in front of you, behind you, launching from behind other balloons, you get dizzy just turning around.  Look at the people in the bottom of the picture, I feel like I’m missing out on something behind me.

Look at these balloons, it is almost like they set the ocean themes together on the right side; crab, shark behind him, then the octopus’ garden.

I’m trying to take pictures that will encompass more than one balloon.  The flower is blooming right in front of the Wells Fargo stage coach.

Finally, the woodpecker is in the air along with the ice cream cone, zebra, and car.

The flower is fully inflated; maybe bees will show up later.

We have a Fire engine up in the air.  I never saw the fire engine balloon being inflated.  The Zebra is there also and not for the first time.

This is only a part of the sky that we can see.  There are beginning to be more special shape balloons than regular ones in the sky.

In this location on the field we can see a bee, frog, pumpkin, and I don’t know what the one on the left is yet.

Look at all of the balloons on the ground here, including the 3-monkey balloon in the front – it is speak no evil, see no evil, and hear no evil.  The black balloon with the barbed wire is a POW-MIA balloon.

Spider Pig is on its way.  In case you do not know, spider pig is from the Simpsons show. 

I see that the dragon and ice cream envelopes have returned again.  Many of the balloons circulate back around returning to the field again.

Well, the butterfly finally lifted off.  It has been inflated for quite some time.  Beautiful colors on this balloon.

A Clown and a Fire-plug; wait that sounds like the start of a joke!

Many more balloons are inflating, but don’t seem to be lifting off.  It is later in the morning and I figure they do not want to bother.  In this view, you can see the Bumble Bees, Felix the Cat, POW/MIA balloon, and the tourist Penguin.

Take cover, Angry Birds are coming in.  It is peaking from behind the Carousel balloon.  I never saw the Angry Bird when it was on the ground in the process of being inflated.

Elvis is back on the field.  So is the Earth, Ladybug, Octopus, and Shark balloons all filled, but will they fly?

Now that most of the specialty balloons have left the field, some of the regular balloons are involved in a targeting game.  You can just make out a streamer that was thrown from the American Flag basket.  It is heading to a circle target on the ground.  Points are awarded for getting in the circle and for decreasing points depending on the distance from the circle.

Other people in balloons are trying to place a ring on the white poles in the field.  Again points are awarded to those that place the ring on the white pole.

This is just fantastic and we recommend it to anyone thinking about coming out here to see the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.  We came to two ascension days, one for regular balloons and another for the special shapes.  If you have ever thought about going to the Balloon Festival, do it, you will not regret it.

Tomorrow we are leaving Albuquerque and heading to Alamogordo and White Sands National Park.