Today was a “stay in one campsite all day” day – we spent it exploring the Alamogordo area.

We arrived at White Sands National Park a bit before it opened at 9AM, after Scott bought a lifetime park entry card for Seniors for $80 (an annual one was $20 – Scott is hoping he lives more than 4 years and comes out ahead.)

We wondered why there was a sign that said “White Sands National Monument”.  We looked it up and learned that White Sands was established as a national monument in 1933 and re-designated as a national park in 2019.

At any rate, we used the plastic toboggans that we borrowed from the KOA, and slide down not one but two different dunes.  The second was higher and steeper.

We then drove through the park in the jeep and examined tall white(ish) dunes from every possible vantage point.  The sun was so bright and the sand so white that you felt like putting sun glasses over your sun glasses.

Having our fill of gypsum sand dunes, we returned to Khan for lunch and emailing and siesta-ing.  Then we headed to the local off-road area courtesy of the Bureau of Land Management – Red Sands Off-Highway Vehicle Area .  While there seemed to be an ambiguous (to us) registration requirement for jeeps and such, it seemed unlikely that there would be any enforcement – and there was not.

We found it to be moderately to a-bit-more-than moderately challenging, and we drifted sideways a bit several times, but with Tom’s expert driving we never came too close to getting stuck, and all the branches that scraped against the side of the jeep did not leave scratches.  The trails were easily passible, but rough in some places and we bounced around a lot. It was fun but exhausting – we went about 15 miles in an hour and a half.

We had a bit of time left so we visited The New Mexico Museum of Space History. The area is credited with being the cradle of the US Missile and Manned Space Programs (not Cape Canaveral as one might surmise from the activities their). We arrived at 4PM and they closed at 5PM, but that was OK.  Fun fact – the inventor of the TASER named it after Tom Swift of the teenage kids books  – the Thomas A Swift ‘s Electric Rifle.  The section on science fiction was more entertaining – we thought – than the historic space flight exhibits, though all were good.

We then returned to our campsite where Tom cooked hamburgers on the grill while Scott prepared another box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese left over from our trip to Sheridan, WY with Anthony.