Onward to East New Mexico

Sunny. This morning we packed up and headed east, passing through the White Sands National Monument which are massive white sand dunes ( made of gypsum) and also the site where they tested the first atomic bomb in 1945. Then up over a mountain range to 8860 feet where they have skiing in the winter, though the ski run looked pretty short and not too steep. And onto “the Ranch” – an escapee park just north of Carlsbad. It is in the middle of a ranch, but somehow, there is a train track close by. Heard nothing at night fortunately. We had the royal welcome here.


Sunny. It’s caving today on the plan so we headed south of Carlsbad to the caves – which is a national park. Really interesting - several very, very big rooms with lots of stuff hanging down and growing up. In the past, there were meetings and weddings held in the caverns and people were encouraged to take a bit of the cave home. So many of the formations have been broken and some written upon. Now it is closely monitored and there are designated paths to follow. Very impressive. It was a cool 53 degrees inside and down about 800 feet, but it was a cozy 88 when we emerged into the daylight. The visitors center is at the top of a mountain range ( rather short mountains ) and the view to the south is over Texas prairie.


If you look quick enough, it looks like you are looking out over the ocean and you can see islands on the horizon.