We pay our respects to El Capitan

We have now been in the Chihuahuan High Desert for 12 days, from Tacumcari, to The Valley Of Fires (lavea beds), then Lee Oliver S.P. (Alamogorda and The White Sands), Lake Brantley S.P. (Carlsbad) and here at Hueco Tanks S.P. In that time we have come to respect the desert as a harsh environment, yet one that is fascinating and complex. We are also appreciating not only the climate, but also the effect that the geology has had on the landscape. The whole area of central New Mexico has been subject to some intense land movement which has revealed rocks which are 350 million years old. The land has been shaped by water erosion as it has been desert for less than 10,000 years. Interestingly the major movements, which produced the Colorado Plateau (5,000 foot uplift from Utah down to Arizona, which produced the Grand Canyon) and the Rio Grande Rift Valley all happened about 65 million years ago (the time when dinosaurs died out). So although the dominant rocks are limestone (they form the major material for the big mountain ranges right up the Rockies) the valleys and basins in between are covered with aluvial sand of a variety of types. Limestone varies in hardness dependent on how it was formed. This with the major upthrusts and volcanic/igneous activity has led to some pretty awesome rock/mountain formations. The characteristic of these mountains is that they seem to rise abruptly from flat, valley floors. We have seen this time and again in our travels.
On Friday we planned to camp at Hueco Tanks State Park near El Paso, to do this we had to make our way even further south in order to get around the Guadaloupe Mountains. Almost the whole route (140miles) was dominated by driving round this most southern outcrop of The Rockies. The most dominant feature being a huge outcrop of limestone at its southernmost tip called El Capitan. From there the desert stretches all the way to Mexico in the south. El Capitan came into view within 30 miles of leaving Lake Brantley, we drove through its foothills to the Visitor Center and it stayed in view until we were about 20 mies from Hueco Tanks S.P. We stopped at the Visitor Center and enjoyed the scenery.
When we were stuck in Hickory Creek a couple of weeks ago we visited Denton Old Town, where we discovered that the Butterfield Stage coach line passed through on its way from St Louis to San Francisco. Well, we again found ourselves on the Butterfield Stage Route as we explored the Pinon Station, right under El Capitan. Because of the mountains and deserts further north the stage was forced to come this far south to provide a reliable route to carry mail to and from the West.
As we left El Capitan behind we crossed more desolate desert, including salt flats. Although this was a very good road we only saw a handful of cars on this stretch. One problem not mentioned was the wind, it was strong and against us. With a good wind and gentle driving our rig can cover 250 miles on a tank of gas. With a head wind that can be easily cut to 180 miles. However not only did we have a head wind we had to climb 2500 feet to get through the pass at El Capitan, go down the over side then climb steadily again for the next 50 miles. We could almost see the fuel gauge needle dropping. Oh by the way there are NO GAS STATIONS BETWEEN CARLSBAD AND EL PASO - 160 MILES! We arived at Hueco Tanks S.P. with barely a quarter tank left, and we still have to travel another 20 miles to El Paso, but I think we will be OK.
Although I have not described it adequately we were very impressed with the grand scenery of our trip from Carlsbad to Hueco Tanks S.P.

Carlsbad Caverns

Today we have visited what I think are the most famous and best caverns in the world. Carlsbad Caverns.
Known for thousands of years but only explored since 1898 and opened to the public in 1933.
They are still exploring the system, some parts are more than 100 miles long.
The part that we were able to explore is more than half a mile long, with a path 1 1/4 miles long, all in one cavern.
To get to it you can either walk in the natural entrance or ride the elevator 750 foot down to the reception area the bottom. It has a restaurant, gift shop and restrooms. Once we had oriented ourselves and got used to the 56 degrees F we set off. What a fabulous walk amongst the many rock features, stalactites, stalagmites, rock curtains, pools, high ceilings, huge drops, masssive features and tiny little cameos of rock formations.
Well we took three hours to get round the loop of the big room and had a great time.
We took many pictures, not all of them came out, but I expected that in the low light conditions. However the ones that I have published do not really give any idea of the scale of the caverns, but at least we ahve tried.

The Solar Laboratory at Sacremento Peak

After visiting the White Sands and feeling OK, we stopped in Alamogordo at the Golden Corral for lunch and then decided we would take a look at the Sacramento Mountains, which form the East edge of the Tularosa Basin. There were three reasons for this,

1. It was there and it would be interesting to explore the very different environment up in the mountains.
2. The National Solar Laboratory has its main observatory in a place called Sunspot, on Sacramento Peak and can be visited.
3. Our route with the trailer would take us across the Sacramento Mountains and we would be able to check out the steep climb to Cloudcroft, 16 Miles from Alamogordo.

in hindsight we should probably have taken a whole day for this, but we felt that we wanted to move on, so up we went.
The road to Cloudcroft is 16 miles long and climbs over 4000 feet not too bad in a car, but we were worried that the Chevy would overheat with the trailer on the back (in the event we had no trouble with the rig in going through Cloudcroft). The drive up was very beautiful and when we reached Cloudcroft we branched off to follow the mountain range south to where the Solar Laboratory is. We were now in dense pine forest, on a road which stitched back all over the place, evey now and a gain you could see down to the Tularosa Basin below, or rather you could have if it was not full of sand blowing in the wind. Even though we were in southern New Mexico we were now high enough that there was snow at the side of the road.
We eventually reached the Solar Observatory and took a tour.
The Observatory has a number of telescopes, all of them for looking at our sun.
Although the astronomers there do look directly a the sun and have done a lot of valuable research into the way the sun behaves, its atmosphere (Chronoshpere) and sunspots, much of the work is done using spectroscopes, where the sunlight is passed through a prism and broken up into the separate colours which make up it spectrum. This is extremely valuable for finding the composition of the sun, the fluctuations in temperature and what is happening on its surface. The big (I mean huge) Dunn Telescope can revolve the surface of he sun down to an area of about the size of a Continent! This means that it can record spectroscopic data of the edges of sunspots and the centre of sunspots and use it to find out more about the sun. Pretty clever. On our visit we were allowed on to the viewing floor of the telescope, unfortunately the telescope had to be shut down because of the wind blowing sand particles around. (yes the same sand that we had seen in the morning was blowing up onto the mountain, 5000 feet below and 2o miles away).
As well as the variety of telescopes there it also has a fabulous view over the high Desert Plains, just above Lee Oliver State Park, unfortunately the view was restricted to about 2 miles because of the blowing sand.
So although it was fun it was a little disappointing not to have done everything we wanted to.
On the way back though we did see a herd of deer, and for the first time a herd of Female Elk (no male in sight though).

White Sands National Park

We had come to Lee Oliver S.P. principally because it is quite close to the White Sands National Park. Today we would visit the park. We had decided that the the best time to visit was early morning, when it is cooler, so we packed a picnic and set off.
After a brief stop at the Visitors Center, where we found out:

• The White Sands are Gypsum (calcium Sulphate), water soluble mineral, which is blown from several nearby lakes in the Tularosa Basin.
• The Tularosa Basin has no water outlet, so run off from the surrounding mountains gathers and evaporates. leaving gypsum crystals behind.
• Wind Action blows the gypsum crystals from the dry lakes and they gather in this one area.
• There is so much gypsum that the dunes cover an area of 270 Sq Miles and are up to 60 feet thick.
• Though transparent the wind action scratches the surface of the tiny crystals, giving them a white surface.
• Microbes and algae are able to establish themselves in the sheltered spaces between the dunes, which is the foundation for a complete ecosystem. Many of the plants and animals are unique to the White Sands, as they have lost colouration as a camouflage.
• Plants have a number of mechanisms to help them survive in the shifting dunes. e.g. the Yucca can grow faster than the dunes build up, so always have the growing part of the plant above the dune level.

Enough of this science talk. We wanted to get in there and see for ourselves.
The dune area is so big that a road takes you 6 miles to its center. On the way we stopped at a boardwalk which went out over one of the interdune areas and we could see many of the unique features of the dunes.
Driving on we reached the picnic area, here we found a number of other people enjoying the sand dunes. With a lot of effort you can climb the faces of the dunes. difficult because as soon as you step on to the dune the face collapses and starts a mini avalanche, also you immediately sink into the sand up to your ankles. Of course you could take the easy way and walk up the less steep Windward side of the dunes, but that would be too easy.
One of the reasons for people visiting the dunes is to sled down the steep face of the dune, using a poly sled, a bit like a large Frisbee, which you sit, lie, stand, kneel on and zoom down the dune.
We spent a couple of hours marvelling at the dunes, by this time the wind was starting to blow harder. The wind in this area is quite strange. In UK we expect wind to be associated with weather patterns, when we get a low pressure system we get wind. Not so here, Wind may happen at any time. It may last for a few minutes, or several days. The wind speed can often be above 20 m.p.h. We had noticed that though it is sunny and there are few trees at the campground nobody puts out their awning. This is because of the wind, which is so unpredictable and gusty. It is usually form the South West. This is of course why the sand dunes are there at all. However, we had heard that a strong wind was likely in the afternoon, which is why we visited in the morning.
Although we know about the wind we did not expect its effects (though in hindsight we should have realised)! As we were visiting the dunes and the wind increased in strength, sand began to blow. Strangely enough it wasn't sand grains close to us, so was not bothersome, but we could see white clouds blowing off the dunes further away. By the time we left the park these white clouds had started to obscure the scenery, after a while it became like a white fog, bringing visibility down to about a mile. Again we were not worried as we were now leaving the park. What we found though was that the sand blowing from the dunes created a fog right along the Tularosa Basin, which is 30 miles wide and hundreds (?) of miles long. It was quite a sight - except you could not see it.