White Sands National Monument. The sand is bright white under the wonderful winter sun. We had a great stroll and saw some cool effects from the snow that has drifted along with the sand and is now slowly melting out of the ridges. Oddly, “seen one dune seen them all” isn’t at all true. The Michigan dunes, Great Sand Dunes and these White Sands are all a little different. All great experiences.
It was getting pretty chilly by 10PM when we got in from the star gazing but made it down to 7degrees by morning. We stayed plenty warm inside but we sure didn’t dawdle breaking camp.
The cold was brought in by a fast moving front that swept across the mountains in the night. It left behind this beautiful frost covered landscape. Above about 2000 ft elevation every tree and blade of tall grass was flocked with a sparkling layer of thick frost. It was just on one side of everything though as the wind blew the icy clouds across the face of the mountains. It was amazing and gorgeous in the brilliant sunshine this morning. It makes for a beautiful farewell sight from the Davis Mountains. Nice that it isn’t on the road surface….
Great geek stop. They give a wonderful telescope and facility tour. Pretty fascinating how the equipment and the buildings all work. Great romantic or philosophical stop too. We star gazed. Spotted constellations. Mused on the likelihood of earth and humans being unique in this vast existence. Refreshed our memories on some great early mythology as background for the names of the constellations.
Astronomers as “light collectors”. Wonderful almost enchanting thought.
It IS dark here. We happen to be here during new moon and the sky is pitch dark. You can see the Milky Way and thousands of stars that are often missed. It is magnificent. To bad it is also getting into the teens at night. It limits the enjoyment of stargazing! This park is particularly known for the illusive Montezuma Quail. Didn’t see it. They had some nice trails though as does a nearby Nature conservancy. We see these scattered around the West. They are cooperative efforts between cattle ranchers, local governments and state governments to collaboratively manage the development of and preservation of geologically unique land parcels. I suppose if I researched it I would be disappointed how political or self-serving it really is but, on the surface, it seems like a great effort.
We spent an hour in the little shanty shop of a 72 year old transplanted northerner who now spends his days making hand-made brooms with cedar or lechuguilla handles that he goes out and harvests himself. He has quite the life story and seems wonderfully content with his retirement life in the broom business. Only thing missing is an apprentice to take over when he goes. We are not quite ready for that quiet a life but might be an opportunity for someone one day….he will probably live to 105 though….
It is a sleepy little town out in the middle of nowhere. It lay strategically on a westward expansion route in the pioneer days but nowadays has the dubious honor of “least likely to suffer urban sprawl” or any type growth…making it perfect to locate a multi-telescope observatory. You see, light pollution is those folks’ greatest enemy.
Besides the observatory there is the restored Fort Davis. It is well done and a nice museum too. I had never heard the theory before that the reason the Indians referred to the black soldiers as Buffalo Soldiers was because of their kinky hair like on the buffalos head. Maybe that wasn’t a politically correct theory when I was growing up or, maybe I wasn’t listening all the time in history class.
The sunrise blazing stripes across the Chisos mountains.
The sunset painting the Sierra Del Carmen pink.
Fun Ranger programs
Birds and critters, no matter what the weather.
Much of the park is accessible only via high clearance vehicles or back packing in.
Javelinas, the non-pig
Grapevine Hills primitive camping could be a great quiet site for the motorhome too.
Beautiful sunny day and a chance to get out on the trails a little more before we head out. We saw mule deer, road runners and javelina on our trek. Some new birds to identify too. Great views across the mountains. We stopped at the camp store and had ice cream….
Kent tested his driving skills again today. We drove the Old maverick Road. It is a dirt back road into a more remote part of the park. It is marked “high clearance vehicles”. That’s a Miata, right? Well, we made it, oil pan and muffler intact. It took 2 hours to drive 13 miles and most of the view was of low scrub desert, kind of like strip mine country. Anyway, we had the experience. Great way to end our stay here.
We went to the Ranger program. Big Bend has 5 poisonous snakes. Four of them are rattlers. One thing this cold is good for, they are all in hiding. Good program but we were popsicles by the time it was over. It got down to 7 degrees again last night. I suppose it was below 20 during the program which was at the outdoor amphitheater and an hour or so long.
We saw sheep-like critters scrambling along the cliff edges above the Rio Grande. Still need to look up exactly what species or whatever but wonderfully fun to watch. On that same walk, we watched Peregrine Falcons (we are pretty sure that is what they were but they are tough to identify in action) hunting and catching another bird in flight. Amazing.