Snow, Pseudo-Snow and Billy the Kid

Snow? Yup!


Snow? Nope. Gypsum.


He really was a "kid"














Exploring southern New Mexico is to be always surrounded by mountains and enveloped in the cobalt-blue sky of which the residents are so justifiably proud. It’s big. It’s clean and, it’s desert. We awoke on Saturday to a bit of surprise as pictured above. For eastern readers, in case you forgot what snow looks like……have a look. But, by noon it was sunny and warm. The snow was gone. Just the way we like visits from old man winter.

Smack dab in the middle of the US Army’s 4,000 square mile White Sands Missile Range, lies the 275 square mile White Sands National Monument, named as frequent readers will guess for the ……………white sand. The area is entirely ringed by mountains allowing for no water runoff. As a result, all gypsum eroded from the mountain sides collects in the basin. This natural “dune park” is in a pristine, natural condition because the military fires off rockets every now and then making any encroaching development and home building decidedly risky. This is the largest deposit of pure (97%) gypsum sand in the world and, the dunes are “snow white”. They are actively growing and moving leeward at the approximate rate of 15 feet per year. Building a road through the dunes is impossible because the moving sand would swallow it up. Access is across packed gypsum, regularly maintained by our buddies at the US National Park Service. (A high-power auto vacuum cleaner is a good idea!) Astronauts on the space shuttle use the White Sands Park as a reference point on this side of the earth and the Great Wall of China on the other side. Easily viewed from space. Walking the dunes on a sunny day requires very good sun glasses. It is a beautiful area.

Las Cruces and environs have even more of the Spanish/Mexican influence than did Texas. There are many more adobe buildings, the cactuses (cacti) are getting bigger and bigger and, our burning tongues are chugging Margaritas at an alarming rate. Everywhere in the area are signs: “Billy the Kid lived here”, “Billy the Kid slept here”, Billy the Kid was tried and convicted here”, and the final “Billy the Kid was supposed to be hung here”. But………….he escaped!!! No more “Billy the Kid” signs!!

There is an underlying awareness of the power of nature in this area and, it is respected.