On the Road #7

Thur, Mar 29 - Friday, Mar 30:
     Thursday, we went to White Sands Nat. Mon., 7 miles south of here. We watched a movie about the 275 square miles of white sands and the plants and animals who live there, then drove the loop road out through the area. The most active areas are nothing but gypsum sand dunes. The gypsum comes down from the mountains in streams from rain and snow melt and collects in large, usually dry, Lake Lucero, where the water evaporates leaving gypsum crystals, which break down into sand grains. These are then blown by the southwest winds across the valley floor, forming large sand dunes, which are constantly moving and changing. See Pictures.
      Friday, Sue did laundry, we went to Wal-Mart, the PX, commissary and the library, where Sue returned some books, checked out some new ones, and Joe checked and sent e-mail.
Sat, March 31:
     We went on the Lake Lucero tour. We drove 30 miles south to meet the ranger at an entrance to White Sands Missle Range. He escorted us and a convoy of about 20 other vehicles 18 miles north through the missle range to Lake Lucero, a dry lake. When it rains or snow melts in the mountains, the water dissolves gypsum deposits there and the water flows into Lake Lucero and promptly evaporates leaving behind gypsum crystals, some quite large. As these crystals are eroded by the wind, they break down to the size of sand grains, which are then blown across the desert forming the large white dunes of gypsum sand. All the sand in the white sands area come from this "lake". Gypsum is used to make plaster and dry wall or sheetrock. Near the flat lake bed, the ground was covered with gypsum crystals of all sizes. Some crystals stuck out of the ground 6" and when kicked would not budge. Apparently, they were very large underground. The crystals varied in color from nearly clear to purple. See Lucerno. There were the remains of an old stock tank, windmill and corral, which the ranger said were from the Lucero Ranch, which existed here in the 1800s. It was said that there was grass belly deep to a horse when they settled the area, but due to over grazing and drought, there are mostly mesquite and creosote bushes there now and almost NO grass. The ranch was sold to the government during WWII when the missle range was established.
Sunday, April 1:
     We slept late this AM. Sue sat out and read and Joe worked on a project on the motor home. See the picture, April.jpg, for the absolutely true story of what else happened to us on April 1 !!
Joe & Nancy Sue On the Road” Holloman AFB, Alomogordo, NM