FROM CARLSBAD TO TUCSON MAY 10-11: WHITE SANDS

We left Carlsbad--after an incredible experience--and headed north up to Artesia (do they have an artesian well?) and then headed west on highway 82.  US 82!  We lived near it in Leland MS and in Tifton GA, 36 years’ association with this highway.  But we didn’t get very far, the road was blocked by the HP and officer Carlos Castaneda routed us north: one of several big wildfires was burning to the west. We could see the tan pall of it on the horizon.  So, we wound up going north to Roswell (no aliens visible) then southwest to Ruidoso, where we spent the night after driving into the sun for hours.

Coming into Ruidoso, after days dehydrating in the Chiahuahuan desert, suddenly you are in trees! Tall, beautiful pines (ponderosas?)!  Ruidoso is a racetrack town but season hasn’t started, thank you. Had a great dinner at a place called “Landlocked”: smoked salmon burritos with red berry sangria.  God  the sangria was good! Spent the night in a cheap motel, worst tile work I have ever seen in my life.  Had to walk Bella 200 yards to find anything non-paved, just dirt, for her to do her business.  Still, Ruidoso was nice.  Why the trees? Because it’s about 6000 ft. elevation!  Had no idea we had climbed so far.

Wednesday 11^th  we did White Sands National Monument, just as a visit.  I had planned to camp there but it turns out you have to haul your gear ¾ mile into a primitive campground, and after experiencing the sun at Big Bend I figured I’d wind up leaving Mary dead in the desert.  That didn’t seem wise.  So we booked a hotel in Tucson for that night and  toured White Sands for a couple of hours.

The main reason I had White Sands on the agenda was, our guide book said it was unique.  It is.  Interesting how life has adapted to living in blinding white dunes made up of fine grains of gypsum (CaSO₄, also known as drywall) . We took a nature trail out into the dunes and it was almost disorienting it was so white—we found it a little scary, but it was an adventure.

 We drove back into the heart of the dunes and here’s a picture of one of the picnic areas

If you are ever in the area visit this place it is different.

The White Sands visitor center was a WPA project from the 20’s a beautiful adobe mission style building. A small but striking little display of indian art.  And here is a story: I was standing in the shade at the visitor center watching tree swallows dip and turn when suddenly  a pair zipped down to a yucca stalk not ten feet away and they just sit there and stare at me. They are beautiful! Inky black backs and buff (male) and white (female) underneath. So I s-l-o-w-l-y bring up my camera hoping they will stay still long enough for me to get them and they just sit like statues while I get my lens cap off and the camera turned on and the lens extended. Fantastic! I frame them and shoot—and the camera refuses to take the picture. I have left the memory chip out. It is still in my laptop from when I backed it up last night. Jesus, a wonderful shot lost. So I go get the chip out of the car and put it in the camera and come back to the same spot in the shade; of course the birds are gone. 

But: they come back and pose again, in the same place! Here’s the proof.  I half  expected one of them to extend his claw to get paid for posing.

The Tucson Foothills Best Western gave us a free upgrade to a suite and we found some grass for Bella. Man did we sleep. They also had a great hot breakfast.