New Mexico

May 2000

Carlsbad Caverns

We came into New Mexico from western Texas, which was already high dry chaparral landscape. The fauna quickly gave way more and more to an arid desert appearance. One of our first side trips was to Carlsbad Caverns just south of Carlsbad, NM.  We had toured the Caverns before but Mary Alice sure enjoyed the marvelous wonders that God had created under the earth of the past millions of years. She was only 2 years old the last time so it was a real treat for her to this visit.

 

 

Lakewood, NM

 

The Ranch Escapee’s park in Lakewood, NM, is a really nice park. They gave us the usual warm welcome and helped us get settled in to a vacant site.  The park itself is an oasis amongst the dry sagebrush and rocks. The landscape is relatively flat with hills rising in the far distance. One of the surprising events that happened while we were there was the firing of the cloud cannons. In the late afternoons when thunderstorms would build, every 5-10 seconds we would hear loud gunshot noises in the distance. Our concern was noticed when a local park resident explained that was the sound of the air-cannons used by the local pecan farmers to help dissipate the forming of hail in the thunder clouds. We were relieved to find out that nobody was shooting at us. At night the sky would often glow orange from large flares of fire a few miles away where oil companies would burn off excess gas from their wells. It was quite a site along with the ever-present sweep of the Milky Way across the twinkling night sky. Being just south of Roswell, NM, it made us wonder about UFOs.

 

                            

Guadeloupe Mountains, NM     White Sands, NM

 

After we left Lakewood we headed through the Guadeloupe Mountain range to come down into the Tularosa valley through Almagordo. We could see White Sands in the distance from the western slope. It didn’t take very long to get into pure desert plains that are mostly rock and sand.

 

                            

We almost got lost out there! A little sand in my shoes!

 

 

White Sands is no misnomer! A huge area of the valley floor has been pushed up over the eons and the gypsum sand is so white that it hurts your eyes. Wearing some sort of sunglasses is a must or you can suffer from the same ‘snow blindness’ as winter skiers do.  The Park has a drive from the Information Center into the sand dunes, which we heartily recommend for adventure!  Gypsum is an endothermic material.  Even though it was over 112 degrees and high noon when we were on the dunes, the dunes themselves were cool to the touch.

 

Rock Hound State Park, NM

 

The Florida Mountains stand out in the flat desert on the way to Rock Hound State Park. We took another side trip from Dream Catcher Escapee Park to pursue some rock hounding ourselves. We didn’t find a whole lot but we did obtain some jasper samples that are abundant there.

 

The park can accommodate RV’s although longer units such as ours may not fit.

 

November 2000

 

On our way back from Colorado we came through the Four Corners area.