We are not huge road trippers -- 13 hours just to drive to our starting point was not in the cards for us, so we booked a flight to El Paso, leaving on Thursday evening. At the last minute, Will's fifth grade class was invited to camp at HISD's Outdoor Education Center at Camp Olympia on Lake Livingston. The only problem was that camp ran Tuesday morning through Friday afternoon, so I drove 1 1/2 hours up to Camp Olympia, picked Will after lunch on Thursday, and headed straight to the airport.
Will at Camp Olympia
Gene picked up this monkey early from school too and they met us at the airport. It was a bit of a crazy way to start our trip, but Will had so much fun at camp that it was worth the extra effort!
We took Texas Flat Stanley along on our adventures.
We stayed the first night in El Paso, and then drove over the border to New Mexico. Our first stop was the White Sands Missile Range Museum, located on an army base in southwest New Mexico. We saw countless "Tank Crossing" signs along the highway, which was a first for us!
The White Sands Missile Range Museum houses missiles and rockets that have been tested at the range. There are over 50 on display.
The V-2, the world's first large-scale rocket, was developed in Germany for use as a weapon during World War II.
Missile Park
The missile museum was an interesting stop on our way to White Sands National Monument, which was one of the spots we were most excited to visit.
White Sands National Monument is located in the Chihuahuan Desert. The white gypsum sand dunes cover 275 square miles and are absolutely incredible! We learned all about how the dunes were formed; an ancient sea deposited gypsum and the basin where the dunes are located is like a bathtub without a drain. Gypsum is easily dissolved by water, but because the basin doesn't drain, the water evaporates, turning the gypsum into selenite crystals, which break down into sand through weathering and erosion. The dunes are constantly shifting and growing because of the wind. We also learned about the plants and animals that have adapted to life in this unique desert. White Sands is a fascinating place and I am so glad we got to visit.
One of the best parts about the dunes is that you can sled on them! We bought used sleds (you can return them to get some of your money back), filled up our water bottles (there is no water available past the visitor's center), purchased an annual National Parks pass, and headed down Dunes Drive to the sledding area. The boys were off and running!
Sledding on the dunes was SO much fun!
Gene and I even gave it a go.
Gene did some tumbling on one of his runs!
Gypsum doesn't retain heat the way regular sand does, so even it though it was quite warm when we visited, the sand was cool to walk on with bare feet. If you dug down just a couple of inches, the sand was downright chilly!
Henry made a sand angel.
More sledding!
And climbing back up -- the hardest part!
After sledding down the dunes repeatedly, we walked the Interdune Boardwalk and then headed back to the visitor's center so the kids could earn their Junior Ranger badges.
Junior Rangers!
After our adventures at White Sands, we headed to the nearby town of Alamogordo (translated as "fat cottonwood"), where we were staying for the night. Pistachios grow really well in the desert, so we visited Pistachio Land, where we sampled and purchased pistachios
and saw the world's largest pistachio!
Missiles, sledding on the dunes and a giant pistachio? What a fantastic way to start our trip!
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