New Mexico: Land of Enchantment

As the road stretched out before us, the day proved to be a long drive and western Texas proved to be everything we envisioned. That cactus that comes to mind when you think mid-west sparingly dots the roadside and the dried clay dirt swirls into small cyclones with each gust of wind. After long stretches of desert highway, I-10 brought us through El Paso, where we could literally see the slums of Mexico through a simple chain link fence. Turning north we made our way between the looming mountains which comprise the Organ mountain range. There we found our campground, Aguirre Springs, nestled on the east side of this extrusive rock. Since the long, winding drive took us rather high up, our campsite had spectacular views of the land below us.

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The next day we had to check out White Sands National Monument, one of the world’s great natural wonders. At the bottom of the Tularosa Basin lies 275 square miles of desert, consisting entirely of white gypsum sand. Gypsum is almost never found in the form of sand, however, the Basin has no water-run off, so these water-soluble crystals are trapped, forced to blow around haphazardly, constantly forming and reforming  dunes.

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Driving into the area you immediately feel as though you are approaching the seaside, with dunes of sand and sprigs of grass, the ocean must surely be over the next hill, right? Alas, over that hill of sand is… more sand, LOTS more sand. It’s a little bewildering and scary, until you remember you have a source of water and a vehicle. Driving further into the basin only proves to deliver larger dunes of sand. With the constant motion of the sand, the roads must be cleared daily with a plow and this somehow gives you the impression that the stark white sand is now snow, piled up high on either side of the road.

We found a spot at a picnic table where we ate lunch and then decided to try to surf these dunes of sand. After Ryan took the fins off his surf board, we hiked up the sinking sand of a dune nearby and tried to slide down the side. It was fun, but I guess we were expecting epic speeds and we were only sliding in sand after all.

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The next morning we packed up and started our drive to Chino Valley, Arizona. It was another long drive, but somehow this day was much easier. I think that it had something to do with the awesome views we saw. This was definitely one of the most beautiful drives we’ve been on, with so many hills, mountain top views, and  even drives through the hills with course rock exposed on either side. Before even making it to Chino Valley farms, we decided we love Arizona.

“Great things are done when men and mountains meet.” ~William Blake

Tonya & Ryan