Alamogordo

Today, we headed out for our weekend. We had decided that it was time to go some distance. So we decided to check out the area around Alamogordo, NM. We left the trailer about 9:30 and took Hwy 35 and 61 to Deming. We then traveled on 26 to Hatch as a round about way to Las Cruces. Got lucky with our lunch choice, Sparky’s restaurant is right on the corner in downtown, Hatch. It looks like it’s been there a while and lots of folks know it’s there, because it was constantly busy during the time we were there. The specialty of house is a chili cheese burger which we tried (less the chili, of course). It was a good burger. A good burger. My side dish was pineapple coleslaw and R picked fries, both were outstanding also. So if you are ever traveling down I-25 between Siccoro and Las Cruces, stop in Hatch and have lunch at Sparky’s.

From Las Cruces, traveling east on Hwy 70 over the pass for 40 miles brought us to White Sands National Monument. 275 square miles of the Tularosa Valley is covered with white gypsum sand. The prevailing wind keeps the dunes moving northeast at about a foot a year. From the visitor center which is next to the highway the road goes 8 miles into the dunes. As you travel into the interior, the road goes from paved to gravel to a road covered in white sand and the land changes from semi arid land covered in bunch grass, buckhorn cacti, soap root yuccas, and several blooming hedgehog cacti to more and more white sand dunes. By the time you arrive at the turn around the “whiteness” is almost overwhelming.

After leaving White Sands we continued on to Alamogordo (fat cottonwood in Spanish). The town sits at the base of the San Andres and San Francisco mountains. After driving the perimeter of the city, we grabbed a mediocre dinner at a nearby Mexican restaurant and checked into our motel.

Tomorrow we head up Hwy 82 to Cloudcroft. The sign at the intersection says “Steep highway, altitude gain of 4300 feet in 16 miles. It should be an interesting drive.