On to Alamogordo

Map of this blog's locations click this link to open the map

Our next stop would be Alamogordo New Mexico. It's about 70 miles northeast of Las Cruces. We had narrowed down our camping choices to a few places. Oliver Lee Memorial State Park sounded nice and has a number of first come, first serve sites but it sounded like the road back into the park was a bit rough. We have lots of things we want to see and do while here so having to drive in and out of the park so frequently didn't appeal to us. There also is an Elks Lodge although it was unclear if they might be having electric issues with some of the sites. We ended up going with a private campground - Boot Hill RV Resort. We hadn't made a reservation but Chris called during our drive. We wanted to get a full hookup site for a week. They didn't have one available for the first night there, but we told them we would be willing to move after one night in an electric only site. The next morning, the people in our second spot pulled out pretty early so we were able to make the move without losing a lot of time waiting.

After settling into our second site, we headed back south of town to the White Sands Missile Range Museum. It is 60 miles back along the route we came in to Alamogordo on but we didn't want to stop with the motorhome. The museum is inside the base so you need to go thru security to get in. There is a parking lot just before the entrance so we park and head into the visitor area. It is pretty simple to get in or at least it was for us. Simply provide your driver's license and they run some sort of check and we get a slip of paper that will get us past the guard at the entrance. In theory you can drive onto the base for the museum but it is a bit more hassle to do so. Given the walk is less than a quarter mile, we go the easy route. 

Sign at Entrance to White Sands Missile Range

There is an outdoor area with all the big displays but we head into the museum building first. Having never been in the military and not being a huge military buff, I'm sure there were things here that might hold more significance to others but we still found it quite interesting. I definitely didn't realize the important role White Sands Missile Range played in the development of weapons and the space program so there was a lot to learn. Having spent the bulk of my career at Eastman Kodak in the motion picture group, I was drawn to an interesting motion picture camera called the cine theodolite. Don't worry, I had never heard of such a gizmo either. Basically a motion picture camera is mounted on a precision device that can measure horizontal and vertical angles. It takes two people to operate. Both are looking thru spotting scopes, tracking a missile that has just been fired. One person cranks a wheel to change the horizontal angle while the other person does the same for the vertical angle. The goal is to track the missile while the camera is filming it as well as some readouts of the two angles. The film can then be analyzed to determine the flight path and parameters of the missile. Okay, maybe not something everybody would find interesting but I thought it would have been a fun job.

A Cine Theodolite

Stinger Missile

More Missiles

A Kodak Lens from Its Heyday

The Dragon Missile

Scary Sounding Name

After thoroughly checking out the museum, we head to the outdoor displays. There are easily several dozen things on display from small missiles up to aircraft. Each one has an informational sign so I could at least know what each thing was and when it was used. We had explicit instructions on what could and couldn't be photographed while on the base. If this ends up being my last blog post, you'll know what happened! There was one other building that we were allowed in. It houses one of the few well preserved V2 rockets. Again, this was a lesson that I probably learned in high school but don't remember one bit. The gist of the story is that after WW II, the USA took over many railroad cars full of German V2 rocket parts. We also got the German rocket scientists to come and continue working on the designs. Since their technology was better than ours, we based much of our rocket design from this starting point. This was used both for military applications as well as our NASA programs. 

Patriot Missile Launcher

Outdoor Overview

Another Cine Theodolite

Howitzer

Looks Like Something from Roswell!

Restored V2 Rocket

We ended up spending much more time at this place than we had expected. After getting off the base and back to the car, we quick ate our late lunch the. Headed back north to stop at White Sands National Monument. It was a hot afternoon so we knew there wasn't going to be a whole lot we could get in but at least we got a chance to get a lay of the land, so to speak. We checked out the visitor center and gift shop first then we headed into the park. We stopped at on of the short boardwalks and headed out. The most obvious thing is just how white the sand is. Actually it isn't sand, it is gypsum. I didn't ask why the place isn't called White Gypsum National Monument. Probably because the stuff looks like sand. Although it is definitely the finest sand I have ever encountered. Only a bit more coarse than talcum powder. 

Another National Monument Added to Our List

The other lesson I learned is that my prescription sunglasses do a pitiful job of blocking the sun reflecting off the sand. When we come back for a true hike, I need to have a better solution. We drive the full loop to the end of the park. The whole drive is 16 miles round trip. The further back in the park you drive, the dunes get larger. There is one short stretch of road where the dune appears to be swallowing up the road. It reminds me of blowing and drifting snow. The only problem with that conclusion is most snow doesn't last long in 90 degree heat. 

The next day is likely the highlight of the stop in Alamogordo. And it reinforces the adage, 'it's better to be lucky than good'. It was our good luck that we happened to be here for the first Saturday in April. What happens on that day? Well the Trinity Test Site is open to the general public on that day (as well as the first Saturday in October). Now if you are like me, you will be saying - "well that's great but what's the Trinity Test Site?" It is the location where the first nuclear bomb was detonated back on July 16, 1945 as a test for the Manhattan Project. There is part of my brain saying why would you willingly go to the site of a nuclear explosion. Well it was over 72 years ago and I doubt they would allow people here if it weren't safe. 

The location is on the far northern reaches of the White Sands Missile Range. The northern entrance will be open but the drive is 2 1/2 hours (~130 miles) from Alamogordo. There is a shortcut through the White Sands Missile Range that brings the drive down to ~75 miles but that route isn't open to the general public with one exception. They will run an escorted caravan from the high school in Tularosa to the Trinity Site. Show up at the school between 7 and 8 AM and security will check your license, registration and insurance and allow you to join the caravan. So we set the alarm so we could be sure to make it there on time. By the time 8 AM rolled around, there were easily 200 plus vehicles including several tour buses full of people. We pulled out in the order we arrived with the exception of the one vehicle that wouldn't start. The girl that directed us for parking mentioned there was always one car that doesn't start. Looks like she was right or at least jinxed that car! 

Cars Lined Up for Caravan

The drive through the missile range was pretty uneventful. We were told no photos are allowed until we got to the Trinity Site. There wasn't much along the route that I had any inclination to photograph. It did surprise us as to how nice the road was. Paved and in good condition. I was expecting a dirt road. With this many vehicles pulling in one after another, the parking area filled up quick. Lots of people rushed to line up for the couple dozen port a potties that had been brought in. 

Besides the chain link fence with radiation signs, the first thing we see is something called Jumbo or at least what remains of Jumbo. It is a steel cylinder about 25 feet long and 10 feet in diameter with walls up to 14 inches thick. Originally it had a domed top and bottom and was going to be used to hold the nuclear bomb during the explosion attempt in case the TNT used to set off the chain reaction of the plutonium did not work. Jumbo would contain the 15 pounds of plutonium. Two interesting facts about this. The plutonium was produced in the same location we toured this past summer while in Washington state - the Hanford Site in Richland. And Jumbo was built at Babcock and Wilcox in Barberton Ohio where my brother in law worked, albeit decades before he worked there. Jumbo was not used during the nuclear test. Its ends were blown off when they subsequently tried to explode the thing years later. Yes it's just a huge hunk of steel but one with so much history behind it.

Yep That's a Line of People Heading to Ground Zero

Don't Get Lost

What Jumbo Looked Like Then

Jumbo Now

The actual ground zero is about a quarter mile inside the outer fenced area. There seems to be a nearly constant stream of people heading in and out. Those coming out don't appear to display any signs of radiation so we head in. Just before entering the inner fenced area are several booths setup. The busiest one was selling Trinity Site souvenirs like shirts, hats, coffee cups and the like. We decided we really didn't need to commemorate our visit with any of their products. Another booth was a guy providing "free answers" or so his sign said. He was talking about the site, the bomb and other history of the event. If we had waited to ask a questions, I probably would have gone more existential- what's the meaning of life? 

Looking in at Ground Zero

Big Crowd

The third booth was a guy with a several Geiger counters, multiple metal artifacts and glass covered box of trinitite. This is a greenish, glassy rock that was created by the atomic blast. Sand from the surrounding area was vaporized and then condensed back into this interesting type of rock. In the inner fenced area was a replica of the Fat Man atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. It is normally housed at the White Sands Missile Museum but had been transported here for this open house. There is a monument and plaque situated right at GZ. There are dozens of people trying to get their pictures taken in front of the thing. Hanging on the fence are dozens of pictures that provided all sorts of details about the construction of the site, the bomb and the test blast. The ones I found most interesting were the ones of the blast at various times after detonation. 

Trinitite

Radiation Levels

Fat Man

Monument at Ground Zero

The next thing to see during this open house was an actual house - the McDonald house. It is where the plutonium core was assembled. The house is two miles from the blast site but as one might expect from the military, they had the shuttling of people back and forth down to a science. There were 5 or 6 buses to transport the people from one place to the other. We headed to the back of the line but found the wait wasn't too long. The buses just kept doing their loop and in no time we had made it to the McDonald house. Given it was built in 1913, it was in reasonable shape. Admittedly, there wasn't much to see. There are posters hanging on the walls and a couple people there to answer questions. Surprisingly the house itself wasn't damaged much from the blast. The nearby barn had its roof damaged and with no maintenance, has not fared very well. The original setting of this ranch house was quite nice with some hills in the distance although it would have been an even more desolate location a hundred years ago. 

Line for Bus Ride

Heading to McDonald House

Historic Landmark Plaque

Inside House

People Heading In

Windmill in Disrepair

View at McDonald House

By the time we checked this place out and caught a bus back to the parking lot, the caravan back to town was starting to form. We decided to instead hang out a bit more (we needed more radiation!) and drive back thru the north gate so we could stop and check out another park along the way. With those several hundred people gone, it was less crowded when we wandered around the area once again. Having seen things thoroughly we headed out. It is definitely a desolate area around these parts but eventually made it to Three Rivers Petroglyph Site. It is run by the Bureau of Land Management so our National Parks pass works for payment to see the place. This is definitely an impressive location in terms of petroglyphs. They estimate there are over 21,000 here! We didn't bother to count the ones we saw, but it does seem like there is one every way you turn. There is a trail up into the heart of them but there are numerous side turns that bring you to others more hidden from view. It was an interesting stop.

The One Hand has 6 Digits!

Restored School House

The next day we decided we needed to do less sightseeing and more hiking. We headed up to Cloudcroft. And when I say "up", I mean up. The town is over 4000 feet higher than Alamogordo putting it close to 8700 feet in elevation. There are a fair number of trails and parks to choose from. We pick the Osha Trail in the Lincoln National Forest. Pretty sure it doesn't have any connection to OSHA - the government agency. It was a nice trail. It's listed as being an easy 2.5 mile loop trail with about 400 feet of elevation change. By tacking on the handful of geocaches in the vicinity of the trail, we managed to add another mile to the route. We found elevation change wasn't bad, but the absolute elevation made for thinner air and we were not used to the conditions. All it meant was we stopped more frequently to catch our breath and take pictures.

Overlooking Mexican Canyon Trestle

A Trail with "Real" Trees

After the hike we headed into Cloudcroft proper. It didn't seem to be a huge town, but the high school is an impressively large building. There weren't many tourist type shops so we didn't wander around town. We did drive up to an old hotel called The Lodge, supposedly haunted by a chambermaid killed there in the 1930's. The inside sounded fancier than our hiking attire would allow so we only investigated the outside and found a geocache in her honor. We also pulled into Trestle Recreation Area just to see what was there. A short paved path goes past a replica train station to an overlook with a good view all the way to White Sands. On the way back we stopped at a cute little shop called the Old Apple Barn. They have all sorts of trinkets and clothing but not much in the way of food. So our plan to eat lunch there was thwarted. 

The Lodge in Cloudcroft

Replica Train Station

Can Even See White Sands

Neat Stop

With all the history in the area around missiles and rockets, it wasn't too surprising that Alamogordo would have a space museum. We spent the morning wandering around the four floors of the museum. The elevator has an elaborate mural on the inside that was quite realistic. There are all sorts of displays. Somebody that is really into this would become engulfed. We were more interested than most of the other visitors and was worth the price of admission. The display we liked the best was a vibrating platform surrounded by subwoofers. You press the button for one of several rockets and the platform shook like crazy. Admittedly, we didn't notice much difference from one rocket to another but it was still entertaining. 

Entering the Elevator at Space Museum

A Moon Rock

Even the Waste Bins are Space Themed

Astronaut Food Over the Ages

 One whole section of the museum was dedicated to Star Trek. Being into the original and various series that followed, we found ourselves spending a great deal of time here. Chris tried to beam herself up but nothing happened save for the standard transporter sound. Outside the building is an area with more rockets and missiles. It appears this area can be visited without paying the admission fee. Just as we were leaving, we realized there was a geocache hidden on one of the outside displays and had to go back to find it. 

Beam Me Up Scotty!

Missile Aimed at Town

Yes, the Geocache is There

Blast Off

The Alamogordo area is one of the few in the USA that has the proper climate to grow pistachios. There are multiple shops in town next to their farms. One was just down the road from our campgrounds- Heart of the Desert. They offer free tours each afternoon, so we headed there after lunch. Our group of 10 first watched a video describing the history of the place and how the harvest and processing work then our tour guide took us out to see it firsthand. They have a few thousand pistachio trees on the farm. There are male and female trees. They were just starting to leaf out and form the pollen and flower parts. There is only one male tree needed to pollinate 10 to 12 female trees. The pollination doesn't require birds, bees or other animals. The frequent winds in the area do all the work of spreading the male's pollen onto the female's flowers. It isn't the right season to see the harvesting, but they use a tree shaker that drops the nuts onto a suspended collection platform which directs them onto a conveyor belt to the large bins.

Male Pistachio Tree Preparing to Create Pollen

Female Pistachio Tree Not Quite Ready to Flower

Pistachio Grove

Our next stop was the processing building. They have several very specialty pieces of equipment that clean and sort the nuts. Pistachios typically split open partially on their own as part of the growing process, but not all do. One machine has a drum that is able to separate the open and closed nuts. The closed nuts go into another machine that forces them open in what sounds like a big centrifuge. Another machine will eliminate twigs, leaves and other unwanted debris. Some of the smaller questionable nuts are sent over to a human sorting station. The two women working sat next to a small conveyor belt as nuts were dropped from a storage bin. Their hands were moving so quickly, it was difficult to determine exactly what they were doing. All I could think of was the Lucille Ball episode at the candy factory.

Inside the Pistachio Processing Building

Learning About a Processing Step

Hand Sorting Conveyor

The next stop was the roasting building. The nuts are first mixed with whichever seasoning is being called for then placed on a large tray and put into a big oven. The worker was just removing the batch from the oven into racks for cooling. Packaging and shipping were the next stops. The busy season for this business is late in the year with the harvesting and holiday sales. The nuts can be held in cold storage for many months so they will still have work to do during the rest of the year. We ended the tour and headed to the tasting bar. We had already sampled some pistachios a week or so ago to confirm we like them and that I'm not allergic to them. They have many flavors but we settled on the red chili flavored pistachios and picked up a good sized bag of them for our travels.

Roasted Pistachios Come Out of Oven

Plenty of Storage Bins

Covered Picnic Area at Heart of the Desert

The next day we headed back to White Sands National Monument to do a hike. Alkali Flats Trail is at the far end of the park and is best to do early in the day to beat the heat. We had wanted to do the hike the day before based on weather, but the road to the park was closed because of some testing at the missile range. Apparently this is a rather common occurrence. As we pulled into the parking area for the trail, a road grader had just driven around the edges of the lot, pushing back the ever encroaching sand. I had brought a couple different sunglasses options to see which will work best with the bright glare off the white sand. We do a lot of hiking and this hike was unlike anything we have ever experienced. 

Starting the Alkali Trail

 The "trail" is marked by the standard 4" wide by several foot tall flexible markers seen on many trails. But since they are in the middle of a vast desert with constantly changing dune locations and frequent winds eliminating previous hiker's tracks, you really only have them to go by. If you miss one and wander off, you may never be seen again! Fortunately they are frequent enough that you can typically see several of them ahead of you. It is apparent they also need to be replaced from time to time. We saw a few that were just barely sticking above the surface of the sand apparently swallowed up by the dune. The footing of the trail varies dramatically from hard packed sand that is nearly rock like to extremely loose and fine sand that your shoe sinks down in well over the tops. 

Follow These Trail Markers

Ripples in the Sand 

Time to Replace this Trail Marker

The wind shapes the dunes so they are not symmetrical. One one side, the slope is rather gradual and the sand tends to be more compacted making for easier walking. On the other side, the dune is quite steep and very loose. There were a few that were 30 to 40 feet tall. It took some effort to get up them. The 5 mile trail is laid out in such a way that most of the tough climbing happens in the first half. Just beyond the halfway point, we realize that we really must dump the sand out of our shoes but then it occurs to us that barefoot might be more appropriate. So off come the shoes to be tied to our Camelbacks. I think that turned out to be a good decision since the second half has us coming down the steep fluffy sand. I found my leg going into the sand practically to my knee. 

One of the Steeper Dunes to Climb

My Leg Buried in Sand to Mid-Calf

Chris Out in the Lead

There isn't a lot out here but it isn't completely barren. There is an occasional tree or bush. One of them was even in bloom. We eventually even saw a small lizard. It was tough to spot since they have adapted to be nearly white in color and blend in with the sand quite well. The loop finally comes back to the parking lot. It didn't seem like the hike was 5 miles long but that's what the GPS tells us. With all the sections where the sand is soft, the number of steps required to actual move forward should have made us more tired than a normal 5 mile hike. Maybe our minds were fooled because when you are out there, everything looks the same so we didn't realize we are moving. On the drive out, we stopped at a one mile nature walk and saw a bit more vegetation

Lonely Tree or Bush 

Dunes Everywhere You Look

Nature's Shapes

Blooming!

White Lizard

This Tree Has Seen Better Days

For our last day in town, we headed back to Cloudcroft to tackle another trail. This time the goal was the Switchback Trail. A four mile loop trail just west of Cloudcroft. It follows some of the old rail bed that was called the Cloud-Climbing Railroad - a 26 mile route from Alamogordo to Cloudcroft that included 58 wooden bridges. The easiest trailhead is just off US-82 on Bailey Canyon Road. From here, we follow the well marked T-5004 in a counterclockwise direction. This takes us high above the US-82 as we move to the south and west. The trail is in excellent condition and provided some nice views of the valley below. 

Along Upper Portion of Switchback Trail

At roughly the halfway point, before taking a sharp turn back to the east, we find a small shelter with a very informative sign. As avid hikers, we know what a switchback is or so we thought. Switchbacks or hairpin turns are how trails (or roads) are routed to go up/down steep terrain. Rather than going straight up, the trail zigzags back and forth lessening the slope. I had never really given any thought to how the term switchback came to be. Take a close look at the photo below as it describes how the train made the transition up or down the grade by using the switches on the track. I now have a whole new appreciation for the term.

Explaining a Switchback

We eventually work our way down to the road but aren't forced to gauge the speed of the traffic and run across. The Harkey Pedestrian Bridge takes us over the road and then to the downhill side of the road. The trail now works back east and north far enough from the road such that it isn't and annoyance. There were numerous geocaches for us to find as we did the hike. As we approached the parking area, we have another road crossing but this time they have a pedestrian tunnel to get us chickens across the road.

Our Bridge Across US-82

And the Tunnel Under It

After a quick bite to eat, we decide to head back to Cloudcroft to Trestle Recreation Area. We had stopped here a few days ago but hadn't explored it very thoroughly. Our goal was to get to the viewpoint for the Mexican Canyon Trestle - one of the few remaining trestles still standing. It's about a one mile hike on a reasonably nice trail mostly downhill. The trail stops at a barrier to prevent people from continuing onto the bridge. Not sure if the plan is to add railings and a solid floor to the trestle so the trail could follow the old tracks. We paid for all the downhill to the bridge as we worked our way back up to the parking lot. It was a nice hike but tiring after our earlier morning hike.

View from Another Overlook

Mexican Canyon Trestle