Day 2 – White Sands National Monument and Lincoln National Forest
We woke up early and hit the road heading towards Alamagordo, New Mexico to see the White Sands National Monument. Neither of us had heard of this place until I started researching the road trip. Once I saw some photos I knew we had to stop. White Sands is a basin of gypsum crystals forming sand dunes. There are 8 miles that you can drive through and a few hiking paths to explore by foot. Once you’re inside it’s just snow-white sand as far as the eye can see with mountain ridges in the horizon. Apparently many people show up with plastic sleds and ride the dunes but we didn’t really know where to find a sled. So we just explored on foot taking photographs, doing handstands, making long trails of footprints, and writing in the sand. It was Valentine’s day so we wrote a few sand messages to our loved ones and then enjoyed our lunch in an aluminum sand shelter. Come to find out we were actually pretty lucky the site wasn’t closed when we arrived. White Sands is also a military missile testing grounds and can be closed once or twice a week for safety while they conduct testing.
Obligatory handstand photo
Valentine’s Day messages written in the sand
Our original plan was to head from White Sands to Carlsbad Caverns. Unfortunately the cave tours closed early at this time of year so we likely wouldn’t make it in time. We decided to head through Lincoln National Park in that direction anyway just to have a nice scenic drive on our way into Texas. I knew that Texas would be the longest leg of the trip and often be pretty bare and boring so a little bit of mountain driving would be nice before we hit the seemingly endless stretches of flat, straight roads.
It was pretty cool to go from white sand dunes to forest and snow in less than an hour. After entering Lincoln National Forest we stopped at a vista overlooking White Sands and it was quite different to view it from the top. The mountains had a few patches of snow left so we left a little snowman behind to greet the next travelers passing through and continued on our way.
Once we got out of the forest and hit those endless roads that look the same for miles and miles we did get slightly lost. After doubling back and adding about an hour to the trip we were back on track and stopped in the small (tiny!) town of Pecos, Texas to find some dinner. We were starving! According to Yelp we only had a few restaurants to choose from. We drove by a few that looked a bit sketchy and finally settled on a greasy-looking Mexican joint. We walked in and were suddenly reminded it was Valentine’s day as our eyes were assaulted with the tackiest display of decoration you’d ever see. The VERY casual Mexican restaurant had been given a makeover with white linens on all the tables, white satin chair dresses with red sashes, and flowers and balloons at every table. The next thing we noticed was EVERY SINGLE couple staring at us like they all knew we weren’t locals. Uncomfortable to say the least. We slowly backed out of the place and walked down to another restaurant. Upon opening that door our ears were then assaulted by the loudest most god-awful music ever. More couples were dancing and having dinner and some creepy drunken men were giving us the eye and trying to talk to us. So we picked the lesser of the two evils and went back into that super fancy Mexican restaurant and had a nice little Valentine’s day date.
After dinner we put in a few more hours on the road so that we’d be closer to our next destination. We got a room at Motel 6 Fort Stockton and got some much needed sleep.
you have a gift in writing. loved the love between you and Acacia.
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