White City, NM to Guadalupe Mountain NP in TX
April 27, 2008
The winds were still blowing. We stayed in bed waiting for it to blow itself out, but we finally had to get up. We bundled against the winds and walked down to the deck. A few birds were braving the winds. We decided that today would be a good day to drive!
We stopped in White City, did a little internetting, walked the shops and then headed west. We got to the visitor center of Guadalupe Mountain National Park in time to see some of the exhibits where Will gave the little ground squirrel a finger to gnaw on, to watch the slide show with the squeaky chorus background and get a patch before closing. This park is mostly for the hiker, but some of the views of the mountains from the road show how rugged and vast the American West can be. The mountain is one of three areas where the ancient reef is exposed. The two areas are the Apache Mountains near Van Horn and the Glass Mountains near Alpine; all three are in Texas.
Kathy decided to take us on a wild adventure. She saw the sign for the national park gypsum salt dunes and we decided to go. Well it was about 20 miles back off the road on to a dirt road and we headed for the hills. We dove past irrigated fields. Jack rabbits ran, a roadrunner ran, quail flew off and still we drove on the dirt road….the sand packed road. It went on and on, we didn’t see dunes…well little dunes. We came to a dead end, a gate and pulled off the road and parked for the night.
The winds were still blowing. We stayed in bed waiting for it to blow itself out, but we finally had to get up. We bundled against the winds and walked down to the deck. A few birds were braving the winds. We decided that today would be a good day to drive!We stopped in White City, did a little internetting, walked the shops and then headed west. We got to the visitor center of Guadalupe Mountain National Park in time to see some of the exhibits where Will gave the little ground squirrel a finger to gnaw on, to watch the slide show with the squeaky chorus background and get a patch before closing. This park is mostly for the hiker, but some of the views of the mountains from the road show how rugged and vast the American West can be. The mountain is one of three areas where the ancient reef is exposed. The two areas are the Apache Mountains near Van Horn and the Glass Mountains near Alpine; all three are in Texas.
Kathy decided to take us on a wild adventure. She saw the sign for the national park gypsum salt dunes and we decided to go. Well it was about 20 miles back off the road on to a dirt road and we headed for the hills. We dove past irrigated fields. Jack rabbits ran, a roadrunner ran, quail flew off and still we drove on the dirt road….the sand packed road. It went on and on, we didn’t see dunes…well little dunes. We came to a dead end, a gate and pulled off the road and parked for the night.
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