Day 12, Thursday, March 12th: White Sands National Park

Thursday morning we got to see Oliver Lee State Park. It's remarkable we got parked last night, it was pitch black with no moon. It was 43F, quite chilly. I walked our camping loop at 04:30, about a mile, and was froze when I got back to the Serenity 

Oliver Lee State Park

The park is very nice with overlooking views of the town and large rock formations behind us. It reminded me a bit of our campsite at Arches NP. 

We showered, filled our fresh water tank and had breakfast before leaving the State Park around 09:30.  I paid the $38 because I needed to dump our waste tanks, but much to our chagrin the dump station was closed due to construction...but they gave us directions to a Maverick gas station that has a dump 😏. All and all it was fine, the State Park was very nice, I did a bike ride at daylight only to realize how out of shape I am. Everything in the park is up hill or down hill...I think more up than down.

We arrived at White Sands NP and drove straight to the first hiking spot. No one was in the gate house, just like yesterday, I guess it is an honor system? We have the senior life time pass, so we just drove on through. 

White Sands NP

There are several hikes in the Park.

We did our first hike called Nature Trail, it was only about 1 mile, but every 100 yards or so there was a plaque telling you about the animals that live in the dunes.  Some are pretty interesting, like the bats that eat beetles and large bugs on the ground, not in the air.  I think I see a horror movie script here.... It was a pretty easy hike.  

Given that was so easy, we said let's do that Alkali Flats trail, the longest one on the map, 5 miles. The ranger last night told us that the hike is more strenuous than the milage indicates...she was right.  Going up and down the dunes is a work out. 

We met a few people along the way, but not that many... we were searching for the next trail marker, sometimes we just guessed or tried to follow tracks where the wind had not covered them. 

June, good thing she is not dressed in white!

The dunes are 275 sq miles, once we got about a mile from the main road we did not see a lot of people.  

Going up the dunes is hard, coming down is fun.

Missile Range Border

The hike was 4.6 miles according to my Strava App, the half way point ends at the missile range. 

Atlas Missile Silo??

At the halfway point you can see some buildings in the distance, to me it appears to be one of the old Atlas Missile sites, but even on google maps, I could not find it....Hmm.

Shoes Off

We both ended up with shoes full of sand and just went barefoot. The sand below the surface is nice and cool and actually helped keep us cool. 

The 4.6 miles in the sand was a slog, it took us just about 2 hours and we were pretty tired and hot when we got back to the Serenity. It was great to really get to appreciate the White Sand and would do it again. 

We had a light lunch and set out westerly about 14:00, we did not have a place for the night. Given I got up at 04:00 (I thought it was 05:00) and we had hiked, I was unsure how long we would drive before being too tired. 

We drove to Deming, NM where I found diesel fuel for $3.79 while everywhere else is over $5, no idea why.  We filled up and I found a BLM (Bureau of Land Management) camping site not far away we could stop at for the night. 

These BLM sites can be sketchy with bad roads and difficult to find, but this one, in Luna, NM, wasn't too bad;  just a few ditches on a dirt road to cross. 

BLM Camping in Luna, NM

The sites are far apart, we could just see another camper in the distance.  Overall, it is a beautiful place to spend the night. 

Friday we will make our way to Arizona and stop in Tucson to visit our friends the Hardings.