Sand Dunes and Sunsets

Monday, April 6, 2015

We arrived to Alamogordo, NM yesterday evening and are staying at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, south of the city.  The sunset that was going on during set up was beautiful.  

This park is so pretty, sitting right at the base of the Lincoln National Forest.



Our campsite sits up on the stop of a hill, so our view of the sunset is beautiful.  Behind us are mountains.


We are still in desert conditions with warm days and cool nights.

Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Alemada Zoo this afternoon.  I'm not usually a huge zoo fan, but this one came well recommended so we tried it out.  Pretty cool zoo and very well maintained.  There was a nice playground area and the girls ran off some steam.  We had at least one injury which is par for the course with this group.  I need to wrap Luna in a rubber suit before taking her to a park.

Wed. April 8, 2015
We headed into town to see the New Mexico Museum of Space History.  For all the buzz it gets around these parts, I'm not sure it was that great.  I guess I'm speaking from a mother with kids perspective and not a space history enthusiast.  Then we headed over to a pistachio grove to take a tour of the whole process of growing  and pollinating the trees to the packaging and shipping of the nuts.



Very cute place that caters to mostly small retailers and personal orders.  We had some super spicy pistachios.


By the way, important trivia.......the state question for New Mexico is "Red or Green?"

After we got home we went on a bike ride around the park and met a family a few sites down with kiddos.  We had them over for a campfire and they brought the ingredients for s'mores.


It is spring break for lots of schools it seems, because we see more kids around than we normally do. There were 6 girls total including ours and they had a lot of fun.

Stargazing in style.

Thurs, April 9
Today we went exploring with our new friends and they showed us a cool spring and an area where the water has pooled.


The kids had so much fun exploring all over and daring each other to get into  the freezing cold water.  That desert heat can be brutal and so tough on your body and skin.  The cold water was a nice treat.

Hummingbird nest.  She flew away before we could get her picture in the nest.

Fri. April 10
We packed diego up and took a little road trip to see a few small towns in the area.  First stop was Tularosa, NM to visit Bronco Sue's.



One of the guys we met at "The Ranch" told us his brother had a shop where he made custom cowboy hats.  We stopped by to see if he would give us a tour and show us how things are done.  He was not expecting us, but was so nice to show us how everything is done.



We left with a whole new respect for the art of hat making, specifically country and western.  Also, I had no idea how much those suckers cost.  They ranged from $300 to over a thousand bucks.  Holy toot! (As my Meemaw would say :)).
When we got home we took Diego to see the spring.

Dinner with a view.

Sunsets were the theme.

Sat, April 11
And finally what we had all been waiting for.............The Sand Dunes National Monument!!!



We saved this one until Saturday so Diego could join us and it was pretty fun.  Film first so we knew what the heck we were looking at and then off to sled our butts off.  I will say a word of warning to anyone heading that way, or to any sand dunes for that matter..........buy or bring a SAND sled, not a SNOW sled.  The piece of poop they sold us was for snow and says right on the label...."For Snow Only" :)  We waxed that bad boy as much as we could and finally found a dune steep enough to get some speed on the slide down.



It was fun, but the combination of altitude, desert heat, and our out-of-shape bodies possibly, we made about 3-4 runs each and then laid in the dunes to rest.  The consistency of the dunes is almost exact to the sand on our gulf coast beaches at home.  Fine sugar white sand.  It's so crazy to see that out in the middle of the desert.  It's the hike back up the dune that gets you.  Soft white sand and straight up............it feels like you're hiking up a steep mountain made of quick sand.

Beetle common to the sand dunes.  He's the garbage man, eating up all the waste matter left behind by others.

The girls earned their J.R. badges and we all learned that the dunes are formed from the gypsum up in the mountains that runs down with the water.  Selenite crystals are formed when the water evaporates and the high winds in the area slowly break apart the crystals further and further until the white sand is formed and is blown all over the area.  We made it to a ranger program before heading out for the day.
At night..........Campfire, dinner, and a beautiful sunset with our new friends.



Sun, April 12
On the road................Albuquerque here we come.