By Shelby
Monday we worked from David H. Townsend library at the Alamogordo branch of the New Mexico State University. It was eerily empty and quiet because the students were on break. The library was partially up a mountain and had a great view of Alamogordo. After work, we did laundry at a local laundromat. Then we got Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. We had tried going to a local, authentic taco restaurant, but they happened to be out of most of their food. They said to come back the next day. Planet Fitness wasn’t open 24 hours in Alamogordo, so we drove over to Walmart to sleep for the night. Also, unfortunately the hot water in the men’s locker room didn’t work, so Spencer was stuck taking cold showers. We had noticed that Planet Fitnesses in the north part of the country tend to be better than the south, interestingly.
Tuesday, we worked from the same library. Again, it was very quiet. After work, we returned to the taco place, Ceezy F Tacos for dinner. We got carne asada tacos and birria tacos to share. They were pretty good. After dinner, we went grocery shopping for our next meal, BBQ chicken with brown rice and broccoli. Then we went to Planet Fitness. We decided to try sleeping there since we saw another camper van set up for the night. It had been annoying to have to drive from Walmart to Planet Fitness that morning.
Wednesday, we worked from the same library again. It closed a little early that day, so we drove out of Alamogordo into the mountains to Tunnel Vista to work for the rest of the day. It was very nice. Luckily, we had a good enough cell signal to continue working. Annoyingly, our plastic spray bottle we use to hold soap water for cleaning dishes keeps leaking when we change elevation significantly. We have to remember to unscrew the top, so it can adjust to the pressure change without soapy water being pushed out.
Thursday, we drove about 20 minutes out of Alamogordo to White Sands National Park. We had a quick breakfast at the visitors center before driving into the park. The sand dunes were beautiful. The sand was made from gypsum, which gave it its white color. Eventually, the paved road ended and we were driving on compacted sand. It felt like driving on a snowy road, but it wasn’t slippery.
Our first stop in the park was the 4.5 mile Alkali Flats trail that took us deep into the dunes. It was a beautiful trail leading up and down massive white sand dunes. We followed along red markers stuck in the sand. As we walked through the dunes, our shoes filled with sand and we had to stop a few times to empty them. The trail led out to a flat area past the dunes. There were brown-orange mountains in the distance.
Our next stop was a nearby picnic area where we made BBQ chicken, brown rice, and steamed broccoli. It took a lot longer than we had expected. Who knew it took 45 minutes of simmering to cook brown rice. It all turned out delicious and healthy. We even got a show while we ate. There were three jets from the nearby air force base flying around. We think we heard each of them make a sonic boom as they broke the sound barrier far away. There was also the White Sands Missile Testing area not too far away, so we wondered if they had been missiles. But there were three booms and three jets, so we concluded that they were likely sonic booms and not missiles. Interestingly, a crew of people showed up in the picnic area and started doing a modeling shoot as well.
Since lunch had taken so long, we moved on quickly to a few other short hikes. The sun was getting low in the sky. Our next stop was a 0.4 mile Interdune Boardwalk. It was pretty short and not overly exciting compared to the Alkali Flats trail. Next up, we did a one mile Dune Life Nature Trail back into the sand. It had much more bushes and shrubs than the Alkali Flats trail. We were able to catch the sunset from there. As the sun set, the temperature started to rapidly drop, so we decided to skip the last 0.4 mile trail we had planned. We had an hour drive to our next city, Las Cruces. We hoped the Planet Fitness there had hot water. We were covered in sand and sweat and desperate for a nice, hot shower.
Fortunately, the Planet Fitness in Las Cruces did have very hot water. The Planet Fitness itself seemed fancy. It was near the top of a hill that overlooked the whole city it seemed. There was an overflow parking area far away from the road that we parked the Prius at. It was a quiet night. It was also a cold night. The temperature was supposed to get down to 29 degrees. We decided to try to sleep with all the windows shut and the car off. Spencer woke up in the middle of the night cold, so he turned the car and heat on. Otherwise, we slept fine.
Friday, we planned on taking the day off from traveling and spent it working on some logistical stuff. We organized all of our photos, worked on wedding planning, and other things. We had hoped to have time to play video games, but it didn’t work out.
Friday night, we decided to get ahead and drive 3 hours into the mountains of Gila National Forest. The road was very steep, windy, and long. As we drove further into the mountains, there became more and more snow. We considered turning back and driving to the nearest city, Silver City, and trying again in daylight, but we pushed on. We ended up sleeping at a free national forest campground. The site was pretty big and had a huge fire ring. We only saw two other cars in the entire campground. It was so dark and quiet. The stars were very bright.
The next morning, we drove to a scenic viewpoint where we had planned on camping at. The road down to it was steep and rocky. I hadn’t wanted to drive down it in the dark. We watched the sun rise before returning to the campground to relax for a bit until the Gila Cliff Dwellers National Monument visitors center opened at 9AM.
There happened to be some wood left next to the fire ring, so Spencer decided to start a campfire. We wished we had marshmallows to make s’mores. The sun quickly warmed up the area. When we were ready to move on, Spencer put out the fire. The road looked very different in daylight. We had great views of the many mountains surrounding us. The road was a pretty amazing feat of engineering.
Eventually, we came to the visitors center and made a quick stop to check out the museum and refill our water bottles. We learned that the Mogollon people lived in the cliff dwellings in the late 1200s. They built walls and roofs in natural caves on the side of a cliff. There was a mountain spring at the bottom of the cliff that supplied them with water.
We went for a short hike to the cliff dwellings. We were able to walk into a few of the buildings. It was amazing that they had lasted over 800 years. The rooms were pretty small, but I could imagine they were cozy at the time. When we finished checking out the structures, we climbed down a ladder back onto the trail.
The trail itself was also scenic. We could see the river flowing below and more mountains in the distance. The part of the trail that led back down to the parking lot had a bit of snow and frost. We had to watch our steps, so we didn’t slip on the ice.
Once we returned to the car, we started off back along the mountain road. We stopped at a scenic overlook to have a quick lunch at 7500 feet before moving on. It took about an hour to get out of the mountains and go back through Silver City.
It was another 2 hours or so to our next stop, Tombstone, Arizona. As we drove along I-10, we noticed the unique landscape. Once we left Silver City and made it through the mountains, we were going downhill for miles. There was a wide open area with only yellow grasses and spiky Joshua Trees dotting the land. In the distance, we could see more mountains.
Tombstone is a small city southeast of Tucson that is known for being the site of a famous gunfight at the OK Corral. The main street looked like it was right out of an old Western movie. There were saloons, restaurants, and other little shops. Kids were shooting play guns on the street and men were wearing Stetsons. It was pretty neat. After we explored the main area, we had dinner in the car. Then we drove an hour more to Planet Fitness in Tucson.
Sunday, we went grocery shopping, finished up the blog post, and watched football from Sentinel Peak Park, a small mountain with a view of Tucson. It rained a little in the morning which was interesting since we’re firmly in the desert now. We’re going to be working from Tucson before going to Saguaro National Park next Thursday.
Fun Facts from Week 38:
- White Sands National Park was a National Monument until 2019. It was designated a National Monument in 1933.
- White Sands National Park contains the world’s largest gypsum dunefield.
- On average, a person eats about 2 lbs of gypsum in their lifetime. It’s found in many things, such as toothpaste, beer, tofu, chocolate, drywall, and more.
- The Continental Divide passes through the Gila National Forest in New Mexico.
- The Gila Cliff Dwellings were made facing due south. This allowed the mountain to block the high summer sun and keep the buildings cool, while the low winter sun hit the outer walls all day to keep them warm.
