New Mexico amigos

Arrived in New Mexico Saturday, January 2nd after an uneventful trip. Since neither one of us has ever been to New Mexico we were awed by the scenery during the drive in. Many experience RVers take the smaller highways rather than the interstates but it is all new to us and we are more comfortable driving on the better roads. Someday we may feel the same. We finally found a campsite that is really nice located in Las Cruces which is just over the Texas border. The sites are large and made of compressed gravel as opposed to dirt. The facility offers a continental breakfast and has a nice lounge and hot tub. There are alot of larger motorhomes here and it appears many use this RV resort as a stop over on their way to Arizona. It seems everyone is going to Arizona.

We were able to get one round of golf in at the New Mexico State University Golf Course. It was a pretty ugly round based on our performance but the course was nice and we were thrilled to finally have a day where the weather cooperated.

Spent another day at the Village de Mesilla which is within walking distance of the site. It is the older part of Las Cruces with many unique shops, a Basilica & restaurants. That day the square was full of local artist with their creations.

We have met several nice couples here and had dinner with Ken & Julie from Litchfield Illinois. Everyone either looks at your license plate or the T-shirt or ball cap your wearing to strike up a conversation. You do meet interesting people...this couple owned Schutt Manufacturing, a sporting good company that provided bases and helmets to all to major league baseball franchises. They designed the bases for the All-Star game in St. Louis.

The highlight of our trip was our visit to the White Sands National Monument. It is 275 square miles of white gypsum sand, which is so white that from a distance it can be mistaken for snow. It is a registered national park and very uncommericialized.
There are 3 trails and we chose the 1.5 mile self-guided tour through the dunes.

This beautiful desert is surrounded on 3 sides by the Organ, Sacramento and San Andres Mountains. Over millions of years, gypsum washed off the sides of these mountain and has formed the worlds largest white sands desert.

Wildlife abounds in the night but foot prints of kit fox, roadrunners, pocket mice and various lizards can be seen during the day.

We completed our day with a Sunset Stroll guided by a park ranger. The temperature during the day was in the mid 50's but was so dry it felt much warmer...until sunset and then it was very cold.







Not sure which mountain range this is. White Sands is surrounded by 3 ranges.


Ron next to a desert pedestal. Rosemary mint is the foliage on top.




The start of sunset


Sunset


Ranger guide during Sunset Stroll. Do I look cold? I am!!!



Hope all is well.

Ron & Joan