May 20 - A few sidetrips

We only have a few days before we need to be in Colorado Springs, but we decided to try to avoid just traveling on I-25 and see some unusual sidelights. We drove through Las Cruces and headed toward the White Sands Missile Range. Chuck was interested in visiting Trinity (the site of the detonation of the first atomic bomb) but they only have tours twice a year there and the radiation level is 10X greater than the surrounding area. So we thought we would look at the museum on the Missle Range but the museum was inside the military enclosure and we did not have time to go through all the inspections to get the motorhome onto the base. Lunch in the parking lot didn't seem appealing so we headed out to the White Sands National Monument just down the road a piece. It has nothing to do with the missle range but is a dazzling array of gypsum sand dunes and the life that lives within these interdune territories.

The sand was a brilliant white fine sand that felt more like salt than the sand we are accustomed to in California.

We were fascinated by the adaptation of a local plant called the sotol, which looks like a yucca but isn't. This plant is actually part of the lily family. As the dune forms, it sends down roots. As the dune gets larger, taller, the sotol keeps growing. At top of a large 30 foot tall sand dune, it may seem that there is this two foot sotol. But in reality, it is a 32 foot sotol, with its roots descending to the bottom of the dune. When the dune drifts apart, the sotol roots hang onto some of the sand and odd toadstool shaped features are left.



As you might guess, it was HOT in this part of the world, so we decided to take another detour into the White Mountains nearby to camp in another beautifully forested area near Ruidosa. A four lane road ascended into the mountains and we were looking forward to a cool evening camping. When we got near Ruidosa, and Alexa put in the campground name into our GPS unit, a cruel malfunction, reminiscent of HAL in 2001, sent us on a hair raising goose chase through gullies and backyards of local residents. The directions took us through the town, over the mountain and part way down the other side. When we finally got to our destination, it was a bedraggled campground where ax murderers must come for their vacations. We ended up going back down into the desert floor to spend the night at the "Valley of Fires" campground.