Green Aliens, White Sands & Red Rocks in NM

June 28-July 6 Alamogordo, Las Cruces, Mountainair, Albuquerque

We didn't linger long in Roswell. We looked, but the only extraterrestrial aliens we saw were various artistic renditions of possible likenesses. Roswell devotes about two blocks to aliens.

There is a UFO museum we didn't visit because it was too hot to leave the cats in the trailer.

The rest of Roswell looks pretty ordinary if not banal. We saw peacocks in a park where we had lunch. One walked by the trailer and looked at the cats. They looked back. When Neptune heard the peacock's unusual call, he dove behind the couch.

Speaking of green aliens, there are plenty in Alamogordo, south of Roswell. Native to certain places in Central Asia and the Mediterranean, pistachios are grown in the US mainly in California with about 2% grown in a few places in NM and AZ. They thrive in Alamogordo's hot, dry climate. We toured the Eagle Ranch pistachio farm and tasted different pistachio "flavors". Come to think of it,  "green aliens" are everywhere, not just NM! Alamogordo is a dry, dusty place. In fact, the horizon in southern NM was so hazy it looked smoggy, but it's the wind kicking up dust.

 People slide down sand dunes in White Sands National Monument on round plastic sleds. We didn't have sleds, so we went on a hike.

The very white, very fine sand is comprised of gypsum. We tried to go early, but the trails were closed because of military testing, so we went mid-day and trudged up and down the soft sand dunes while trying to follow trail markers. Although the air temperature was only 103o, the sand made it feel more like 150o or so. After about 20 minutes of this, I had had enough and turned back, barely making it back to the car without succombing to heat exhaustion.

The following day we had a much more tolerable hike on the Cloudcroft Rail Trail, 4,000' higher and 20o cooler than Alamogordo. Built in the late 1800's, the railroad transported tourists and timber to and from Cloudcroft and Alamogordo.

It was a pretty trail in the Sacramento Mountains to the restored Mexican Canyon train trestle, the last of 58 wooden trestles on this rail line.

Our next stop was Las Cruces where we visited the White Sands Missile Range museum. David found the V-2 missile exhibit most interesting. Built by the Germans in WWII, the first long-range ballistic missile had its own building and succinct, informative displays.

A mishmash of other historical exhibits, military and otherwise, was in another building, and a huge collection of various outdated missiles was outside.

Las Cruces is bigger than Alamogordo and seemed more prosperous. We went to the NM State University campus and saw the small, striking Zuhl collection of petrified wood, rocks, minerals and fossils. The colorful petrified wood was pure art. We looked in at the Chili Institute, but there was nothing to see there. We learned that there are always a few NMSU grad students studying various properties of the many varieties of chilies.

We spent a few minutes at Mesilla, a restored, old town with lots of galleries and gift shops surrounding a plaza. Not much was happening when we were there.

The following day we drove 3 hours north along the interstate, a pleasant, scenic drive, past wide expanses of land with nothing on them except a few cows and even fewer horses. Once off the interstate, quite a few ramshackle huts lined the road before we reached Mountainair, about an hour south of Albuquerque. Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument is here, comprised of three separate sites. First we watched the video and read the displays at the visitor's center,

then we drove 25 miles to Gran Quivira where ruins of homes, kivas and churches in the striking high desert are all that remains of a vibrant Indian community of thousands.

As the story goes, Spanish Franciscan missionaries arrived in the early 1600s to convert the local Indians to Christianity, insisting on total allegiance and obedience.

They demanded that the Indians give up their traditional beliefs and cultural practices, build churches and provide food and labor for the priests. The Spanish king's men also demanded tribute and labor from the Indians and argued with the priests over who had dominion over the Indians. All this led to a breakdown in traditional farming practices, shortage of food and starvation among the Indians.

The Indians incorporated aspects of Christianity within their existing beliefs, but this did not appease the priests. They insisted that local traditions be replaced entirely, so the Indians had to resort to holding traditional ceremonies in secret. Within about 50-70 years, people were starving to death, and the pueblos were abandoned. Now it's a remote and peaceful location to visit.

The same story was told at Abo ruins, which basically was a church in ruins made of very red rocks near an arroyo, where villagers had gotten their water.

The Quarai site was only nine miles from our campsite, so we went there the following morning. We got there before the ranger and saw a huge rabbit as big as a dog. It turned out to be a black-tailed jack rabbit, which is actually a type of hare.

It was a peaceful, remote site smelling of desert juniper. We walked the 1/2-mile trail around large church ruins and a few other mounds. Then we drove the back road through a varying desert landscape and the Manzano mountains to Albuquerque, which sits in a wide, flat desert valley surrounded by mountains.

First we visited Petroglyph National Monument, which consists of three sites located a few miles from one another. All of them are located alongside urban residential neighborhoods, making for an interesting contrast. Only two of the sites were open.

Boca Negra Canyon had 3 short trails among black rocks,

with about  100 primitive-looking petrogyphs.

The main trail was steep and crowded.

Piedras Marcadas Canyon had a long, flat, sandy trail and fewer people.

After we had walked awhile, we saw a jack rabbit, then another and another.

The farther we walked, the more we saw. We also saw cottontails. There were a lot of petroglyphs. That evening Neptune insisted on going on a walk until he heard the fireworks. He took refuge behind the couch for the rest of the evening.

Our next day in ABQ we rode our bikes 34 miles on the Paseo del Bosque river trail, which follows the Rio Grande (not so grande here). It was pleasant, flat, paved and sunny. The trail borders a pretty preserve on one side and residential areas, parks and a zoo on the other. Lots of people were out. I saw a roadrunner at the beginning of the trail. It was a beautiful day and not too hot.

After going out to lunch at a New Mexican restaurant near our campground, we went to Historic Old Town.

It was hopping with tourists. Some people were giving performances on stage in the plaza--young boys reciting stories, woman singing yodeling country music. We walked around the plaza, looked in a few shops, unsuccessfully looked for an inexpensive "Walter" t-shirt and then went to CostCo and Trader Joe's.

On our last day in ABQ, we drove 45 min north to Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. It was a nice, sunny day, not too hot in the morning although it did get hotter as the day wore on. It seemed an isolated area, but when we got there, there were a lot of people.

We drove first to the Veterans' Memorial Scenic Overlook over a 3.5-mile rough gravel road and through a river bed.

When we returned to the main parking area, it was full, so we had to park in the bus area. There were hordes of people, and it seemed like everyone was talking very loudly and kids were crying or carrying on--not the ambience you'd expect or  desire in such a place. We started the 1.2 mile Cave Loop trail, which connects to the 1.3 mile Slot Canyon trail, which is supposed to be very difficult. A lot of little kids and overweight adults were heading up the trail, so I figured I should at least try it until it got too difficult. Well, it wasn't really that difficult, and it was so scenic that you just wanted to keep going.

The trail wound its way through canyons, in and around tent rock formations,

through narrow passages

and up to the mesa. Some places were so crowded you had to wait for people to pass. It did get pretty steep a few times, but I made it the whole way and walked out to the farthest point.
The hardest part for me was coming back from the point, because by then it was so hot.

I think I took over 100 photos on this hike.

I could post them all, but it's better if you just go there yourself. All in all a great hike, in spite of the crowds.

After that we went to the inappropriately-named Coronado State monument in Bernalillo where there had been a Tiwa Indian pueblo. The best and maybe only intact murals from the 1500s were found in a kiva, removed and put on display in the museum. They're not really clear but still interesting. The Kiva was repaired, and a local Indian, much to the chagrin of his pueblo, accurately repainted the murals where they had been. A docent took us into the Kiva to see the murals. Other people kept coming down so that we had to hear the same explanation over and over again. The docent kept looking at me and asking me what I was thinking and what questions I had. I was thinking it was hot and stuffy in the kiva, and I wanted to know if I could leave! (I didn't tell him that.)

Then we walked around by ourselves, looked at the reconstructed site, what there was of it, and read panels explaining what life had been like in the pueblo. The Rio Grande was closeby.

Green Hills in OK

I guess I associate Oklahoma with the Dust Bowl and expected it to be flat, barren and dusty. So I was surprised to see how green and hilly it is, at least where we were. Once we got to the Texas Panhandle, it got pretty flat and dry, but the Dust Bowl was in the 1930's, so undoubtedly they use  better farming methods nowadays.

We arrived in Tulsa mid-day and spent the afternoon cleaning out the A/C unit, which had begun to drip profusely inside the trailer. We've never used the trailer A/C as much as we have on this trip. David figured the drains had plugged up, forcing water back inside. Hopefully it's fixed.

The next day it was raining hard, so we went to the Will Rogers museum and learned all about his interesting life. We especially enjoyed seeing old clips of him using his lasso. He could do some incredible tricks with it. Tragically he died in a plane crash at age 56. We also tried to see a couple things on Route 66, but there wasn't much to see on the stretch we were on except a blue whale, and it was still raining.

In the afternoon we went on a self-guided walking tour of Art Deco buildings in downtown Tulsa. Many buildings were ornate on the outside and

even more amazing on the inside. David was underwhelmed. I thought it was neat.

The following day was beautiful and we rode our bikes along the river trail through town. This river trail isn't as nice as the one in Little Rock--it's more urban and part of it passes by oil refineries, but it does have some nice parks and views. We saw lots of birds, including white herons and a colony of white pelicans.

Along the trail we came upon the huge Route 66 sculpture depicting a car full of people coming face to face with a horse and buggy. We tried to go on a single-track trail at Turkey Mountain, but it was too narrow for me and besides, we had already ridden long enough.

In the afternoon we visited the Gilcrease Museum with its exquisit exhibits of Native American and Western art, Remingtons and Russells and Mexican masks, but no photos are allowed inside.

In OK city, we rode our bikes on their river trail, but it was a bit disappointing, mostly paralleling a road through town. The OK River looked muddy and had trash in it.

I did get a good look at a scissor-tailed flycatcher (state bird of OK) perched on a tree beside the trail.

The day before we had a wonderful guided tour of the inside of the state capitol and gained some insight into local politics.

The OK City National Memorial was striking and moving and situated on the exact site where the Murrah building stood before it was bombed in 1995.

A chair represents each person killed. A park ranger was on hand to explain the events of the day and its impact on the city. Also there's museum, but we didn't have time to visit it.

The Centennial Land Run monument is a pretty amazing set of sculptures about a day in history--April 22, 1889--in which about 50,000 land-hungry settlers rushed at a signal given at noon to claim a 160-acre parcel of land in federal "Unassigned Lands" that had been Indian Territory.

A bunny hopped across the grass and found some shade to escape the heat.

The National Cowboy and Western Museum had a reconstructed Western town, Western movie clips and trivia, an exhibit of hundreds of different kinds of barbed wire

and all kinds of other exhibits about the American West. You could easily spend all day. We spent a couple hours.

We spent our last day in OK in Lawton. At Fort Sill National Historic Landmark we learned about Buffalo Soldiers, Indians and fort-related history. We saw the guardhouse where Geronimo was imprisoned a short while

 and visited his grave.

After years of fighting the white man, Geronimo spent the remainder of his life on a small farm with his family near the fort but was free to travel, even participating in Buffalo Bill's Wild West shows and selling autographed photos of himself.

The 59,000-acre Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge was another OK surprise with its lichen-covered red rock hills and rolling prairie. The visitor center had a good video, excellent exhibits and a place to finally recycle the aluminum sparkling water cans I had been accumulating.

We drove around, watched prairie dogs and visited Holy City, where a passion play takes place once a year. It was too hot to take a hike.






On the way to Amarillo, we drove through small towns that looked like they had seen better days. Driving through Amarillo on the Interstate, we could see every fast food restaurant imaginable lining the road. We only had the afternoon there and the A/C had started leaking again, so David borrowed a ladder, got on the roof, disassembled the unit and cleaned out the drains for the second and hopefully last time, at least for this trip.

The cats are beginning to enjoy aspects of their new lifestyle.