To the desert

We began our trip back into more Texas-like landscape by driving this morning from Pinos Altos to Alamogordo, NM. Unfortunately we had a bit of a rocky start. While I was making breakfast I heard a big thump, and turned around and saw that Richard had fallen on the stairs from the loft bedroom. The stairs were carpeted, so I guess he must have just caught the edge of it as he was walking down and his feet went out from under him, and then he fell on his back and on the back of his head. I was fairly worried, and he was feeling definitely bruised and a bit faint, but felt better after some juice and a quick lie down. He didn't want to go see someone about it, so I drove and kept an eye on him, but I think overall in spite of some remaining pain he's doing better. It's our first accident of the trip, but we're fortunate it wasn't a really bad one.

The drive took us mostly eastward, putting the wind at the back of our car and giving us some extra boost and some pretty good time traveling. We were able to stop at City of Rocks State Park for a while, and make our way through the really surprising rock formations, shaped initially as a result of volcanic activity, and later modified by the action of winds. The land in this area is part of the Chihuahuan Desert, and so in addition to the rocks there was a great collection of plants (including some unique agave and cacti) and some new birds to add to the list. Rich spent much of his time there taking some great photographs of the formations, both for himself and also for his later geology unit that he teaches for my Darwin course. Although this was a quick and somewhat spontaneous stop on the trip, it's definitely a place that we would come back to if we traveled this way again.

One of the places I most anticipated seeing was White Sands National Monument, which we visited just prior to getting in to Alamogordo. You first see the basin where White Sands lies after going over the pass just after Las Cruces. Once you hit the pass and then go through it, you look down on the desert below, and start entering the missile range. We were fortunate on this trip that there was no missile testing, so we were able to just take 70 and go straight through. There was a brief stop for Border Patrol, and then we got to White Sands. The parking lot was packed, so we thought it better to hit some of the side trails that were less populated, since a lot of the park visitors were bringing sleds and plastic disks for kids to slide down the sand. Although that might seem a bit wintery, there was in fact a thin layer of snow on the sand from the snowfall that had hit us in Pinos Altos, and it was an odd combination of the dry desert with what we'd experience at the high altitudes.


It's amazing to see the dunes, and then to pick up a handful of the gypsum that they're made of and look at the finer structure. Smith had a great time walking around and sniffing, and we occasionally just went running down the individual dunes and he really loved that part. The interpretive signage is great, and they do a good job of showing some of the major natural features of the site for anyone whose willing to take the time. Richard got some great photos of the plants and scenery, along with some close-ups of cross bedding. We'd seen it on rocks in Palo Duro canyon, and then could compare it to the active sand movement that is occurring at White Sands.

We're resting up a bit for two long days of travel, broken up in a segment from here to Pecos, TX, and then another big jump from Pecos to home. Smith is completely exhausted, and Richard is getting a soak in the tub to help his back feel better.