Sunday, March 17, 2013

Alamogordo Day Two and Three




The day started out with coffee and breakfast outside, it never did get very chilly last night. We loaded up our laundry and headed into town. We spoke to two very nice ladies while we were doing laundry, who were snow birds from Wisconsin and have been coming down here every winter for a while now. They said this past winter was a cold one with temperatures hitting as low as 17 degrees. They said the nice days make up for the occasional cold one however.

After laundry we drove around town, we like to go back in the neighborhoods and get off the main drag, to get a feel for it. There are some beautiful areas here. After the drive it was back to the RV for lunch and to put our fresh wash away. With nothing scheduled for the remainder of the day and it being so nice out we decided to go back to White Sands National Monument. We were glad we did, it is such an unusual place. We parked the car and hiked over the dunes.  It was blinding if you took your sunglasses off.

We returned to the RV for some Johnsonville Brats on the grill and a quiet evening. We did manage to watch two episodes of Downton Abbey.    

We were planning on leaving here tomorrow but the forecast is calling for high winds. Down here high winds mean dust storms and we really don’t want to get caught in one. So we may end up sitting here for another day or so. This afternoon we could see sand being blown around over in White Sands, the wind however is not bad on this side of the valley (yet).












This morning was so beautiful we decided to take the Dog Canyon hike up into the canyon the complete hike is over 5.4 miles one way to the summit and an altitude gain of 3100 feet. We made it to the second bench which was 2.4 miles up, pretty good for oldies. Needless to say the 2.4 miles going down were so easy.  We returned to grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and a relaxing afternoon. The temperature reached about 80 with a sky so blue and clear, New Mexico has the bluest skies we have ever seen.

 View of the campgrounds from the top (as far up as we went anyways)

 Nice sunset