How You Dune? Part 2

Did you read Part 1?  You probably should!

When last we blogged (because this a group effort, dearest readers), the Olsen and Spencer contingents had traveled all the way from Arizona to New Mexico, settling down in Oliver Lee Memorial State Park for a few nights.

Chris and I at White Sands National Park

Although I slept better on Friday night than Thursday (it is QUIET in Oliver Lee, and there was zero light pollution), I still woke up early, so again I read in bed while Chris continued to slumber.  Eventually, the sun started to peek over the horizon, and I decided to go adventuring around the park, to let him rest.

We were in spot 28 and Jen, Bryan, and the boys were in 30.

Both worked out great - 

right against the mountains and super spacious.

While I was out wandering, I ran into Bryan and the doggos, and together, we checked out the comfort station at the park.

Bronx, Bogey, and I waiting for Bryan to scope out the men's side

Sunrise at the Spencer camp

Before too long, Chris awoke, put on some clothes, and strolled over as well, and I accompanied him back to Arlene to start the breakfast preparations.

Our own camp chef, working on breakfast burritos

Phase 2 of burritos -

this is about 15 minutes later,

and he's already had to ditch his jacket

(and don his sunnies)

Noms!

While we cleaned up from our breakfast, Jen went for a run and showered; Chris took advantage of this time to play around with our solar panel setup (it mainly just recharges our battery) and show it to Bryan.  For my part, I played paparazzi:

When I asked Chris whether he wanted to pack the solar panel,

he waffled a bit, as we don't really need it for so short a trip.

Then I asked, "do you want to pack it, so you and 

Bryan can d*ck around with it?"

His answer was "oh, yes!"

We left this hooked up most of the day,

and it recharged the battery nicely.

We're pretty easy on power, all things considered,

but it's a nice option to have.

That's the missle range,

way in the background

Bronx is like,

"Jeebus, Aunt Amy, why so many pictures?"

By 10 or so, we were all packed into our respective trucks and heading toward White Sands NP.  It was about a 30 minute drive from our campsite, but it was larger roads the entire way, so it was an easy stretch.

Since the Army Base is an active missile range,

there are times when the NP and the 70

are closed due to potential debris from missile testing.

Thankfully, we were not impacted on this trip.

Pulling into the NP proper, we made our first stop the gift shop for stickers, t-shirts, and all sorts of other souvenirs.  At this point, our pack split up for a bit - Chris and I planned to do a short hike, while Jen, Bryan, and the puppers drove around and checked out the areas that were a bit more amenable to an older doggo's pace.  We made plans to rendezvous in a few hours for lunch, and we were off!

As you can see in the moderately blurry picture below, the entrance to the NP is at the south end of the park; to get to the larger dunes as well as the more intensive hiking, you drive for 15 miles or so north.  Our aim was to hike the Backcountry Camping Loop Trail, so we didn't initially complete the top driving loop (we'd do that after lunch).

Although you can see some dune activity from the 70, the entrance to the park is mostly scrubland, and for a little bit, the drive looked like this:

The main entrance gate

Still driving, still smiling

Eventually, though, the scrub gives way to sand, and we found ourselves driving through what looked like a giant beach:

Dunes in the distance

At this point, the road stops being paved,

and you're driving on hard-packed gypsum.

Any car would make it without issue,

and the truck had no problem at all.

Be sure to click on this to make the sign bigger - 

it's a good one.

Before too long, we found ourselves at the parking area for the Backcountry Camping Loop, and we got ready to start our hike.  We have about 800 pictures of that, so it will wait for the next blog, but how about we check in on the Spencers before we close out this entry?

Figuring (correctly) that it would be old-dog-friendly, they visited the Interdune Boardwalk area of the park, and the boys - Bogey particularly - had a great time flopping around in the sand.  A neat thing about the dunes here in White Sands is that they're made from gypsum, not silica, like the sand you'd find at your local beach (well, at least in the continental USA - Hawaii, you're on your own here with your weirdo lava rock beaches).  The gypsum sand becomes a super fine powder, and it actually reflects sunlight, which means it never gets hot.  We found ourselves digging our hands down into it several times, and apparently, it feels pretty nice on a dog belly, too:

That's the stuff!

It's also good for a proper squirm:

All of our kiddos have a pretty good life,

don't they?

On the next blog, we take a hike, then we eat lunch, and we do some dune sledding!  No one maims themselves or breaks anything - spoiler alert - which is truly a miracle!

Later!

Amy