March 9, 2006
We left Carlsbad at 6:30 with temperature at 47 degrees. That is the coldest it has been in some time. We headed north on 285 to Artesia and then turned west on 82 where we began to feel the wind pushing us around. We are headed for Almosagorda and have to cross the Guadalupe mountains. A sign we just passed warned of steep grades at Cloudcraft which is near a ski resort. We can see the mountains about 40 miles away. We are beginning our assent and the hills are quite beautiful with small cedar trees and cacti and yucca. There is a small stream of clear mountain water running along the highway.
Now we are in a little valley where the brush and cacti have been cleared and cattle are grazing and next to the pasture is a huge apple orchard covering many acres. Next we passed a sheep farm. The pastures seem to be pretty green so the rainfall here must be better. This fertile valley runs for several miles. It is not what we expected out here in this desert like country of New Mexico. WE just passed through Cloudcraft. They have very nice ski slopes and a nice village with very modern schools, both elementary and high school. As we leave we realize how very high up we were. We are going down, the sign warns, for 15 miles. We can see the valley below way off in the distance. We are now in the valley between 2 mountain ranges. The wind is not blowing so we are going to head on to Las Cruces to stay at a Wal-Mart there. When we were up high and could see the valley there was an area that looked white that we could not see what it was. Now that we are coming up on it we see that it is White Sands National Monument, a very large sand box! Tee hee. We drove into the park and took a one mile walk in the sand dunes. It is quite amazing. The sand is very, very fine and is formed from a very old dried up lake which now has gypsum crystals in it. These gypsum crystals break up and blow away when the wind blows, thus the sand dunes. We were able to see some of the crystal pieces laying in the sand. The climate here is very dry. A tour guide told us they had ¼ inch of rain not too long ago and that was all they had had since October. We must travel through the San Andres Mountains on our way to Las Cruces. From a distance they are quite beautiful. It is amazing that we can see so much diverse landscape in the short distance we have traveled today. Isn’t God’s creation marvelous and amazing? Thanks be to God. We are staying at Walmart in Las Cruces. It is a fairly new Walmart. Across the interstate is a big mall and there is every kind of business possible in this area.