Sunday, March 6, 2016 Traveling to and visiting White Sands National Monument, Alamogordo, NM
We took our time moving out of the campground and still managed to leave by 8 am. Fog moved in and stayed with us for the first hour or so. We only had to travel 200 miles and arrived just before 1 pm. As we headed towards the mountains we caught a glimpse of snow. As we came through the mountain pass we saw some snow in patches on the ground but nothing serious, thank goodness.
We arrive at Holloman Air Force Base. The sites are full hookup and drive through and pretty level and it is only 7 miles from White Sand National Monument. We were able to see the white sands while we were still in the mountains. We set up and then had a quick lunch then we were off by 2.
We arrived at White Sands and we drove the entire loop stopping to watch some kids coming down the dunes on saucers. We stopped again and walked to the top of a dunes. The sand was cool instead of hot. I later found out that the sand is made out of gypsum. Gypsum holds moisture in so I guess that is the reason for it being cool versus hot. We drove the dune loop which was a total of 16 miles of nothing but fine white sand. It was unique seeing that there wasn't any ocean around. Something different to see with the desert surrounding the area.
Tomorrow we have nothing planned but a visit to a Pistachio Farm.
Monday, March 7, 2016 Pistachios and Wine
Today we headed out of town to a Pistachio Farm we had seen on the way into town. It is called Eagle Ranch, Heart of the Desert Pistachios and Wine. It was an interesting tour and we learned about pistachios and tried some of their wine. They grow their own grapes and the wine was pretty good. We ended up buying a couple pounds of pistachios and 6 bottles of wine. One more thing this is the only farm in New Mexico and has been in business since 1978. They have over 13,000 trees and 4 stores.
FYI- Here is some information about pistachios. First thing is that there is a male and a female tree and the female is the only one that bears fruit. It takes 6 years for the trees to start bearing fruit which only comes out to a small handful per tree. By the time they reach maturity which is in 16 years it will then be producing 40 pounds and as they grow older they continue to produce more until they average over 70 pounds per tree. The oldest known tree is in Iran is over 700 years old and still producing fruit.
We are all done in this area and we leave for Tucson tomorrow.
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| Snow on the mountains |
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| Snow going through mountains |
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| You can see the white sand off in a distance |
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| kids having fun |
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| Sand dunes |
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| Look at the sand fly |
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| Pistachio trees |
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| This is how they look on a tree |
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| Alicia this is for you |
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