Spending some days in the Tularosa Basin

The Tularosa Basin is located between two mountain ranges with the towns of Alamagorda and Las Cruces, New Mexico on either side.  This basin is where White Sands Missle Range is located as well as the Trinity Site where the A-bomb was tested before being used in Hiroshima.  Also located here is White Sands National Monument and a number of state parks and BLM recreation areas which highlight the terrain. 


We started our tour at Aguirre Springs Recreation Area (BLM) where we camped and hiked the 4.5 mile Pine Tree trail up into the "rabbit ears" of the Organ Mountains.  A little history on this.......Four years ago, we exited the highway on our way to this recreation area, and we were confronted with a sign stating no trailers over 23 feet allowed.  We asked the BLM host and he discouraged us from continuing and we ended up that night in Las Cruces in a parking lot RV campground.  THIS TIME, Morey called the current BLM host, who said, "Come on up."  So we did, climbing the one lane windy road where we were rewarded with a great camping site and great views.  Glad we made the drive, and we were definitely the longest RV (30ft, 10in) in the campground.

 

Today, we left Aguirre Springs and stopped first at the White Sands Missle Range.  Checked out the museum and the restored V2 missle from WW2.  Walking the exhibit, memories of nuclear holocaust, fallout shelters, radiation, and civil defense food storage, all came back from the 1960s.  The Missle Range is still a very active military base with ongoing tests of the latest missles and anti-missles.  There is even a highway sign that states that the road closes for up to an hour during a test firing.

 

 

 

 

Leaving the military, we stopped at White Sands NM where the gypsum dunes, unique in the world, glisten in their whiteness.  Like snow, only not cold nor wet, you can climb and saucer down the dunes.  The park even rents saucers for the fun. 

And tonight, we're on the eastern side of the basin at Oliver Lee SP, looking back at the Organ Mountains and Aguirre Springs to the west.