White Sand and Rockets: Alamogordo
We broke up the drive from Tucson to Alamogordo into two days. Our first stop was a harvest host in Deming. Just about the only Harvest Host in southwest New Mexico is the DH Lescombes winery, which is actually quite a big operation with many labels - none of which I'd seen in Oregon. I guess they mostly sell in-state? They had an enormous gravel parking lot with several other RV guests all spread out, and an outdoor tasting area that was busy. We enjoyed the fair weather, golden low sunshine, and an unexpectedly sweet red table wine as we settled in for the night.
After an uneventful night - my favorite kind on these short stops - we hit the road again for the haul to Alamogordo. Southwest NM is a startlingly desolate place, even by the standards of the American southwest. Several sequences of highway signs warning that "Dust Storms May Exist" help drive home how hazardous a big, flat windy place can be. Six people died in a collision on I-10 caused by a "brownout" several years ago. Driving it, I can see how.
This makes the San Augustin pass just east of Las Cruces all the more startling when you crest it. Sadly we couldn't take the viewpoint turnout in time - stopping all 26,000 lbs of us isn’t a fast operation - but from there you can see the entire Tularosa basin from edge to edge and it is nuts. The basin used to be an inland sea, and is indeed as flat as a sea bottom. The mountains come pretty much straight up out of it on east and west. You can see why it was set aside as a missile range, you've got nothing but flat, empty space and no neighbors to bother.
We came diagonally across the basin into Alamogordo, a funny little place that's about tourism, missiles, and essentials for the airmen at nearby Holloman AFB. Tourism in Alamogordo reached its fullness in the 1950s and 60s after the nearby White Sands monument had been built out and the town became the unofficial center of pilot safety research in the burgeoning Americana space program. The best-looking bits of the city evoke that space age spirit, though I must say I think they're underselling it and could really go all-in on the space age decor and attractions. There are several notable museums on the subject in town, and another at the missile range, but they were all closed for COVID.
Our home for the week was the KOA right in town, a "Journey" flavored franchise with small sites and simple attractions. Strong youth group retreat vibe here, with the rec room of family-friendly DVDs, ping pong table, and retro KOA architecture. The foosball was a major hit, especially since the pool was closed.
Since so many attractions were closed, the big thing to do was definitely White Sands, now a National Park as of December 2019. The nice thing about the NP designation is they redrew the borders a bit between the dunes and the missile range, making it so they no longer must close the park during missile tests. This has delayed many a visit in the past, or so I have heard, but wasn't an issue for us. White Sands is pretty famous, and for good reason. The landscape is absolutely alien, and at once inviting and kind of hazardous (lots of warning signs about the heat and how easy it is to get lost). The sand is quite different from the usual brown silica sand, much firmer and downright cold. We were just at Imperial Dunes about a month ago, and on our first visit we felt like those were kind of more fun. (Once we figured out our sled game it got much better, though.) Also unlike "regular" dunes, the sand isn't nearly as blowy and smooth, instead forming ripples on the windward side and steep slopes on the leeward.
The steep slopes and firm pack make for very good sledding, something you won't be doing on quartz sand dunes. It's not as fast as snow sledding, which confused me for a bit - especially when the whole area looks for all the world like one of our Mount Baker snow play areas in February! No, to get good speeds sledding the dunes you need a well-waxed sled and the steepest dune you can find. The first few runs it'll be slow but as you use it it'll firm up and get faster.
The sledding was a hoot, and the scenery phenomenal. We enjoyed our free 5th grade NPS pass, as it meant we could hop in and hop out of the park on multiple days without having to pay again. There was just enough cell coverage that I could work there on one afternoon while everyone else rode the sleds! Great view from the “office”, but man that sand got into EVERYTHING. Next time I'll keep the electronics out of the wind.
Since our trip to Scottsdale I've been noticing a "hop" in the truck at speeds over 65mph. I had chalked it up to the usual bumpy ride of our stiff-sprung truck, but this seemed too rhythmic and frequent for that, and finally figured out it must be a tire imbalance. So I scheduled a balance appointment at the local Discount Tire, only to be told when I got there that the 19.5 inch wheels on Sheila are a different kind than they can balance, and I'd have to go elsewhere. I guess Sheila is like a tiny semi truck? Fortunately the Ford dealer in town could fit me in, so I went out there the next day. They told me I had balancing beads in the tires, and it was going to take a long time to redo. But then they found one that the inner rear wheels had hard-dried mud caked all on one side, more than enough to throw off tire balance at speed. So they pressure washed all the wheels and took it for a test drive, and everything was fine! I was there about 2 hours but they never even charged me for anything. Great service and the truck rides smoother than ever.
Friday was our sunset visit to White Sands and we almost didn't go, as clouds and cool rain blew into our campground. Cold, windy sand dunes didn't sound like much fun, but the weather apps all indicated it would be warmer and clearer on the dunes, so we braved it. Turned out better than we could've planned, and it was a breathtakingly beautiful evening.
