November 7, 2006

November 7, 2006

This morning we took a day trip with the car to the White Sands Monument. It is 45 miles northeast of Las Cruces in the Tullarosa Basin. The Monument is in the middle of the White Sands Missile Test Range. When we get there we are notified that the Monument will close in about ninety minutes for a test firing. We speed through the driving tour. The Monument is the largest gypsum sand dunes in the world. It is an amazing place. The white shifting sand dunes are everywhere including the road. If it weren’t for the hot weather I would swear we were in Colorado after a snowstorm. I make a snow angel atop a dune for Aimee. Later we see a group of college students sledding down a hill. White Sands formed in the Tullarosa Basin because there are no outgoing rivers to carry away mineral buildup. Rainwater dissolves Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate for my chemist friends) from the surrounding mountains and pools in the Basin area. As the pools evaporate, they leave behind the white gypsum sand crystals.

At 11:30 the park police makes everybody leave the dunes area cutting our visit short. On the way out we stop at the visitor’s center and browse the exhibits. Thinking we beat the park closing we return to our car and head back to Las Cruces. Right outside the visitor’s center we find the road back is also closed for the test firing. Less than ten minutes later we see a corkscrew contrail in the sky. It must be the missile as the police open up the road shortly after. On the drive back we stop at the Missile Museum in the White Sands Test Center. They have a bunch of missiles displayed outside. It is mostly uninteresting but I am amazed at the huge variety of missiles we have developed over the last sixty years.