Thursday, October 13
Today we visited the New Mexico Museum of Space History. It was interesting to see the many models and displays showing the history of space exploration and the direction it has taken today. There were outside exhibits as well as a four level indoor display. The hall of fame is a tribute to key players in space exploration and due to its consistent climate and flat terrain, New Mexico has been a key location in the space program.
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| Little Joe II |
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| F1 Rocket Engine |
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| Nike Ajax |
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| John landing the shuttle |
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| model they used to test body movement in space |
Next we went to White Sands National Monument
At the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert lies the Tularosa Basin and rising from the basin is one of the natural wonders of the world ~ the glistening white sands of New Mexico. The dunes at White Sands are unique in that they are gypsum. When the water, in the form of rain and snow, comes down the San Andres Mountains it washes the gypsum onto the ground. Normally it would then be washed out to the sea, but in the Tularosa Basin there are no rivers to drain it. The gypsum is trapped in the basin and it settles and hardens there but is still fragile. When the strong winds come from the south they break the crystallized gypsum into small pieces. As it continues to be tossed about, the gypsum is ground into this beautiful snow white sand. Of course this process has occurred over thousands of years.
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| gypsum roads |
exactly what it looked like~mounds of snow. We even saw the front loader plowing the sand and people sledding down the dunes ~ reminded us of home. The black topped road only goes for a mile or so and then the road becomes packed gypsum and it looks like
our snow covered roads.
The windswept ripples in the sand were beautiful but we felt like we were on another planet as we sat in the vast whiteness and had our lunch. All we could see for miles was white.
We learned that the dunes are easier to hike from the side; there they are hard. The face is soft and difficult to climb ~ but great fun to slide down! We had fun
walking bare foot through the cool sand. It isn’t hot like other sand.
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| gypsum plant stand |
Gypsum is also absorbent. Even on the tallest dunes, if you
dig down about four to six inches it will be moist. For that
reason plant seeds that are scattered by the winds will start
to grow and are fed by the moisture in the sand. Some plants
grow this way for many years and their roots hold the sand
around them until the sand actually becomes a ‘plant stand.’
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| collapsed plant |
As the strong winds continue to blow the sand away, the plant is left without its stand and it collapses with its own weight.
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| parabolic dunes |
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| parabolic dunes |
As we drove through the park we observed the different kind of dunes present here. The first part of the park passes through parabolic dunes where the plants anchor the sand and the center of the dune is pushed forward by the wind creating a U shape.
Then we passed through the brachan dunes where the strong winds actually form crescent shapes and finally transverse dunes which are created when brachen dunes join in long ridges.
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| brachen dunes |
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| transverse dunes |
This park was really different than anything we had seen and very interesting ~ we learned a lot and had a great time.
That night we tried to stay in another cabin but it didn’t work out ~ long story.
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