Day 13-15 ~ NEW MEXICO (Las Cruces)

Feb 17: Today we say good-bye to ARIZONA and hello NEW MEXICO. We are only visiting one city in New Mexico. We will be staying three nights in Las Cruces. We have visited here before. This time it will be to visit some National Monuments in the area.

LAS CRUCES

After 276 miles and 4 hours we arrived at HACIENDA RV RESORT. This is another RV park that is located in a commercial area near RV sales and repair businesses. It is next to the highway, near train tracks and close by the airport.  It’s a nice, clean RV park with a tidy layout. The sites are level, but too close together. There is cable TV, but the WiFi signal is weak.

White Sands National Monument

Feb 18: WSNM is about 50 miles north-east of Las Cruces.  We drove on US 70 through open, barren, desert landscape which is home to the NASA and Army missile range and Holloman Air Force Base. This is the area where they test out the military missiles. When we reached the visitor center at White Sands we saw, but mostly heard Air Force planes fly by low and at full speed. Wow. White Sands National Monument and Highway 70 is closed during missile range testing. Usually twice a week for one to two hours. Today was our lucky day. No missile testing today.

The sand dunes in this area are not made of the kind of sand we familiar with. It is made of GYPSUM. The gypsum is broken down into crystals. The wind and water then break down the crystals making them smaller and smaller until they are sand.  The sands shift and settle over the Chihuahuan Desert covering 275 square miles.  White Sands NM is the largest deposit of gypsum in the world. There is only one short 8-mile road going into the monument. We stopped at the view points and did two short walks. This is our first visit to this park and we found it interesting and impressive.

 The sand and dunes are firm and easy to walk on. You do not sink into the sand like the dunes in Oregon.

Mesilla

Feb 19: The town of Mesilla is one of the oldest and most visited communities in southern New Mexico. It was named one of the top 10 small towns in the country to visit. It’s just outside the city of Las Cruces. We spent a short time at the plaza checking out the colorful shops and had lunch at La Posta De Mesilla, a restaurant that has been around 80 years. Across the street from this restaurant is a building from 1850 that was later the Courthouse where Billy the Kid was tried and sentenced to hang.

Basilica of San Albino 

 

Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks 

National Monument

After lunch we drove about 20 miles east to visit this National Monument.  This NM was established by President Obama in May of 2014.  So, it is a fairly new National Monument.  Its 496,000 acres.  It consists of Organ Mountains, Desert Peaks, and two other mountains and a natural springs area called Dripping Springs.  There are lots of hiking trails through the mountains and desert and trails for horseback riding, mountain biking and opportunities for rock climbing. 

Las Cruces’ Roadrunner 

The Roadrunner is the official state bird of New Mexico.  Along Interstate 10, on a hill top just before entering Las Cruces, stands a 20 feet tall, 40 feet long Roadrunner made entirely of recycled junk. It was built in 1993 by Olin Calk with throwaway junk and placed by a landfill. In 2001, the old junk was replaced with new junk and moved to a rest stop on I-10.  It could be seen for miles. 

 Can you find these items: pair of crutches, golf clubs, ancient cell phones, ironing board, TV remote control, camera, keyboard, film reel, tennis shoes……

Tomorrow we head for the Lone Star state of Texas. Stay tuned.