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
