White Sands National Monument and heading west

Saturday, November 9
White Sands National monument is a gypsum dune field, the largest in the world. It covers 275 square miles of the Tularosa Basin, nestled between the San Andres Mountains on the west and the Sacramento Mountains in the east near Alamogordo.

Earth plate shifting created the Tularosa Basin where the White Sands NM is located.

Water movement through the surrounding mountains flushed gypsum down onto the flats. Wind has drifted the gypsum into dunes.

The road into White Sands NM. 

This is the inter-dune are where the landscape transitions from desert to white gypsum dunes.

Plants send down long roots into the sand to anchor themselves against the wind and the shifting dunes.

Nice wide gypsum road. Surprisingly there is lots of water only a few inches below the surface. Gypsum holds the water even during the intensely hot summer sun.

Lots of folks bring a sled to slide down the gypsum dunes.

A lonely existence.

A walk through the dunes.

Cottonwood tree with roots exposed.

Sometimes lots of roots doesn't guarantee success.

Several large moths live in the White Sands.

The sand is creeping up on the sign post.

This branch doesn't know which direction to head.

Sunday, November 10
We say adios to New Mexico and head further west to southeast Arizona. Huachuca City to be exact.
We dumped our tanks and were on the road by about 9 AM.

We stayed at Edgington RV Park in Alamogordo. This is a Passport America park and we stayed here for $18/night with full services. The park has quite a few permanent residences and some are in need of major repairs, but the park is clean, it's very handy to the main highway without being too noisy. What really makes the stay worthwhile though is John the owner. What a character. He made us feel at home immediately and was very helpful answering questions. We highly recommend this park if you're in the area.

It was a beautiful day for travel. The winds were light and just enough cloud cover to keep the bright sun at bay. We headed down Hwy 70 to Las Cruces then joined I 10 west. We passed Deming, then Lordsburg. We crossed into Arizona and turned south at Benson on Hwy 90. Tonight we are tucked into a very nice spot at Quail Ridge RV Resort near Huachuca City, AZ.

Heading west toward the San Andres Mountains

Over the mountain and down toward Las Cruces, NM

Las Cruces (city of Crosses)

One big chile!

With a name like this you would expect big things........

.......not so much. The Rio Grande is nearly dry.

Border Patrol inspection station.

Rest are inside Arizona where we ate our lunch.

Groves of Pecan trees.....we think.

A few more clouds in Arizona. Just adds to the beauty, don't you think?

Heading into Benson, AZ

I didn't think we were going to see a sunset tonight, but all at once the sky turned this incredible deep burgundy color.

Our first Arizona sunset this season. It sure didn't disappoint!

.....and that was Our View From Here!