Leaving Texas behind, Beth and I said goodbye to Guadalupe National Park en route to our next destination – White Sands National Park in New Mexico. It would be a relatively short drive, only 4 and a half hours.
We recently learned from other travelers that most of White Sands was closed because of the crash of an F-16 fighter plane in the park at the beginning of May. The Air Force has a base very near the park and many of their test flights go right over White Sands. Unfortunately only 3 of the 10 mile plus road through the park was open with only two trails available. We were glad to hear the pilot was able to safely eject before the plane crashed and did not sustain any significant injuries.
Since we knew we wouldn’t need as much time to sight-see, we decided to drive right to the park and explore what we could before heading to our campground to set up. It was a good choice. We arrived at White Sands in the early afternoon and spent several hours enjoying the really unique sand dunes and surrounding landscape. The sand is white, for sure, even whiter than the cumulus clouds overhead. But what makes it even more dramatic is the mountain range which rises all around the park. At home in the Outer Banks we have sand dunes. But instead of mountains in the background, we have the ocean or the sound. At White Sands, the bright white sand is framed by the imposing mountains, a really unusual combination.
We were disappointed that we could not travel through the whole park to see the full extent of its beauty, but we spent a good hour or more hiking the glimmering white dunes that we could see.
Beth took some outstanding pictures. The array of colors was striking. The white sand, the purple mountains, and the green vegetation, created a really distinct view in all directions. The white sand is actually gypsum crushed to a powder by the strong winds. We also hiked a smaller trail that was open and it took us to an area known as the “Playa”. Playa is Spanish for beach. Sure enough, at the end of the trail we were dumped out onto a flat, white sand area in a basin that fills with water in the rainy season (July and August), but that in May looks like a large stretch of beach. It, too, was neat to see. As is our custom, we watched the National Park video about White Sands before heading out to set up our new campsite. I don’t know if we will ever get back to White Sands again, but at least we got to stamp our passport, and cross it off of our list of parks to see.
We planned to stay only one night at our new campground, the Oliver Lee State Park near Alamogordo, New Mexico. As with our arrival at the campground at Guadalupe, we were very surprised when we pulled up to our site. This time, though, it was a pleasant surprise. Even though the information we had prior to arrival indicated our site had no electric or water, it had BOTH! Unbelievable! We were so excited that we would be able to charge all of our electronic devices right at the site. That was so much better than Beth hanging out near the bathroom for several hours using the outlets inside to charge our phones as she did in Big Bend. We kidded that we felt like we were at the Ritz Carlton. The only thing that was missing were flush toilets and showers. We would have to wait a bit longer for those luxuries.
We were set up within an hour, and that included a fully inflated air mattress for the first time in a while. It required no contortionist moves to fit it into the tent. Beth even took advantage of the water spigot to take another modified shower to clean off the next layer of dust that had developed since our showers the previous Sunday. The desert is very dry and dusty.
As we sat relaxing around our well appointed campsite, I walked over to the car to get something and stopped dead in my tracks. Five feet from me was a rattlesnake! I heard it before I saw it; that unique rattle sound. I called out to Beth to take a look, maybe not the best thing to do as she really doesn’t like snakes, but she was really good about it. We paid close attention to it as it slithered under our car, across our site, and into the shrubbery adjacent to our site. I made sure we closed all the zippers on our tent before we slithered into bed ourselves.
Wednesday morning we were up again at sunrise and began the process of tearing down our campsite. Just as our efficiency seems to be improving at each set up, it’s improving on the tear down too. We were on the road around 9:00 a.m. heading for Saguaro National Park in Arizona. Arizona would be our 8th state (not counting our home state of North Carolina) on our travels, and Saguaro would be National Park number six.
We are staying at another State Park campground, the Gilbert Ray campground, near Tuscon. After an uneventful morning of travel, we stopped at a New Mexico visitor center for lunch where we broke out the Coleman gas grill and treated ourselves to hot dogs and a can of mixed vegetables. While we both like peanut butter and jelly, a hot lunch was a nice treat and since we had a shaded spot with a picnic table, we took advantage of it.
After the sumptuous lunch, we continued on stopping at a Walmart Supercenter in Benson, Arizona, about an hour from our campground. We stocked up on ice, food, and the buy of the day, some really heavy duty tent stakes. While we had purchased a beefier set earlier in our trip, they turned out to be no match for the rock-hard ground at the Guadalupe campground, so we wanted to find something stronger. We did. Much to our delight, the Walmart had really heavy duty stakes made of 1/4 inch iron, and these beasts are about 10 inches long. I kidded with Beth that we now have 3 sizes of tent stakes – teddy bear, black bear, and grizzly bear. Beth can be Goldilocks.
Fully stocked with ice, food, and tent stakes, we proceeded to the Gilbert Ray campground, arriving at about 3:30. Since Arizona does not observe daylight savings time, we gained the hour back that we had lost upon entering New Mexico. Our poor bodies have no idea what time zone we are in. No surprises this time upon arrival. The site is as advertised, and while we have no electricity, we do have a water spigot. And believe it or not, real flush toilets and running water in the bathrooms, woohoo!
The wind was really blowing as we set up our tent, so we chose the recently purchased grizzly bear stakes to secure it safely to the ground. I am so glad we spent the $20.00 on the better stakes. These things will withstand a class 3 hurricane. It was a nice afternoon and evening. We were able to relax, have a leisurely supper, and avoid any rattlesnakes. The day was a big success.
We spent Thursday morning in Saguaro National Park, hiking the King Canyon Trail, the Cactus Garden Trail, and the Desert Discovery Trail. We were truly amazed at the thousands of Saguaro cacti we saw. There’s so many that the park calls it a Saguaro forest. These things are enormous, with some standing as tall as 40 feet and weighing up to 7 tons! They can live to be 200 years old. In every direction, these giants of the desert stand guard, watching over their home. Many of them have two or more arms shooting out. Beth commented that if you put a 10 gallon hat on them, they would look just like cowboys on the ridge line. She’s right. In every direction, there are Saguaros of different sizes and thicknesses. Beth had a great time taking shot after shot with her camera.
We hiked a little over five miles before lunch, spending more than four and a half hours among these quiet giants. It was truly a very unique experience. Each park we have been to seems to have something special, and Saguaro is no exception. We hope that you too can someday visit this awesome part of America.
Friday we’re off to the Petrified Forest also in Arizona. We’re knocking on the door of California,and will complete our coast to coast stretch soon. As always, thanks for reading and take care.