Leaving Elephante Butte NM, to Alamogordo NM

Sundays are working well for get-away days. Campground space will be freeing up now as the Texas spring break is over today. This had a big effect on NM campgrounds as well as Texas. We were away by 8:30, back down to Las Cruces, across 70 to Alamogordo.

Some pretty good hills on this route

Historic missile testing range

Another checkpoint to go through, no problems though

Along the way we stopped at the White Sands National monument park, and toured the white sands (really gypsum, not regular sand). It was another warm 28C sunny day, very warm with the heat bouncing off the sands. The sands themselves stayed pretty cool though. Sure looks like snow, they even have to use a grader sometimes to plow sand off the interior roads.

We went south from Alamogordo to Oliver Lee state park for the night. A pretty park, nestled against a large range of hills. There are some nice hiking trails in the park, but most were closed due to recent flood damage. We got there about 2pm and could have done some hiking, but nobody felt like it except back and forth to the washroom building. It was pretty warm for us Northerners.

We both took unserviced campsites ($10), as most of the serviced sites ($14) were full, and the unserviced sites were nicer. Good washrooms and showers, except several of the buttons that you push for sink water flow didn’t work. Temp got up to 34C, but our sites had a covered picnic shelter that allowed us and the dogs to get out of the sun, and still have great views. The atmosphere here was much like Big Bend Cottonwood cg, with the hills and the natural feel of the cg.