Jack & Stacy's Excellent Adventure!: Alamogordo & White Sands, New Mexico

We spent the night in Alamogordo, New Mexico and saw a some very interesting things.

The Three Rivers Petroglyph site contains over 21,000 carvings and etchings made by the Jornada Mogollon people between AD 900 and AD 1400. They are on rocks on a rugged hillside overlooking two valleys. We speculated that the people used this hillside as a vantage point from which to spot animals to hunt, which could explain the density and huge number of glyphs. The weather was spectacular, as were the vistas.

No, this one is NOT an ancient rock formation.

As we came down out of the mountains east of Alamagordo, we saw a vast "snow field" glistening in the distance. Although we had seen snow on the mountaintops, this was on the valley floor and had us really confused. Then we realized what we were seeing: the White Sands National Park and White Sands Missile Base.

There are only a few places like this on Earth, and this is the most extensive. The "sand" is actually gypsum (the same stuff sheetrock is made of) which washes down from the limestone mountains. It crystalizes when the water evaporates, then breaks apart, blows around and ultimately becomes tiny grains of brilliant, glistening white sand.

These plants grow quickly, don't mind being buried in sand, and then die

One of the more interesting things is that the wildlife in this one area has adapted to the white environment by becoming lighter colored. The lizards, snakes, crickets and even the foxes are all much lighter in color than members of the same species elsewhere in New Mexico. The only critter that didn't feel the need to adapt was the Stinkbug, who is still black, because, well, he just sticks his rump up into the air and lets go to repel would-be predators. (Sound familiar, Phil?)