Sleep in the overflow camping area was easy. Peaceful. We were awake early and enjoyed muffins and coffee to start the day. I walked about the campground again and marveled at how rugged the landscape is and the type of person it would have taken to settle on it over 150years ago.
Packed up, off the site and tanks dumped by shortly after 10:00am. Seems to be our preferred departure time. We headed to the gas station and filled up the van for what today will be a fairly short drive.
Our first and only stop of the day would be at the White Sands National Park. It was only about 30 minutes from Alamogordo and we soon arrived. $25 entrance fee (yikes!) and one road into the sand dunes. It was paved about 2/3s of the way and then we were driving on hard packed sand. We drove back to the primary area where folks seem to go and hike about and found a mostly empty parking area.
The dunes are pure white sand, almost appearing to be snow or table salt. It is actually gypsum crystals that have formed from the repeated submerging of the land in sea water and evaporation of that water millions of years ago. The dunes are about 30ft tall and we were free to climb and walk about on them.
A common pastime is to bring a toboggan or sled and use the dunes like they are snow. Many people were sliding and taking pictures of themselves frolicking in the sand. Not us. First, we have no sled and 2nd we’ve sledded on real snow. Instead, we took off our sandals and climbed the dunes only to find the sand cold. Yep, the sun was blazing and unlike any beach we had walked on the sand was cold to the touch. We took some pictures and looked about and then returned to the van as the sun was blinding.
In fairness people are advised to cover up, apply sunscreen, where dark glasses and drink lots of water. We did not cover up or apply sunscreen but we both wore dark glasses and hats and drank lots of water (the air is really dry in New Mexico). The air temperature was only 17C but the sun was blazing and if we were to be out for more than the hour that we were, sunscreen would have been essential as there’s nowhere to hide.
We stopped briefly at the gift shop on the way out to pick up a pin for in our van and then we were on our way to Las Cruces, NM where we have a spot reserved at the KOA for the night.
However, before arriving at our destination we had to cross a mountain range. The highway was really good (albeit an almost dead straight road most of the way) and had a slow lane for the trucks and us on the ascent. The descent went rather quickly and before we knew it we had arrived into Las Cruces.
Our plan was to stop at a Mexican restaurant recommended to us for lunch before going to the park for the night. It being a Sunday and the restaurant being in a historic area with very narrow streets and no parking my stress level went way up as I tried to simply navigate the streets and not hit anything low or higher up like a tree. Not finding an obvious place to park a rig the size of our van in such an environment we drove onwards to the KOA and settled in for the night. It’s a really nice park and our site has split rail fencing and a patch of grass and 2 trees! Maybe we can find a nice place to enjoy lunch tomorrow.
Until then, good night!