Day Six
White Sands and Chamizal
Another beautiful Arizona day greats us this morning and we head out for our longest day so far. We are heading east into New Mexico, a state neither of us had been to. It would be a five hour ride to our first destination, White Sands National Monument.
White Sands is a massive area that is made primarily of Gypsum. It is rarely found in the form of sand because it is soluable in water. Normally, disolved gypsum would be carried away by rivers, but no sea drains this basin known as the Tularosa Basin. The visitor center is an historic adobe structure and contains exhibit on the geology and a diarama that explains the formation of the dunes. From there, the Dunes Drive leads 8 miles into the heart of the dunes. Wayside exhibits along the drive interpret the geology and natural history of the white sands. There are four marked trails (including a wheel chair accessable one). We had a difficult time photographing the dunes because of their brightness. The tour through the sands took about an hour (not including a half hour stop at the visitor center). This is a historic area as this is the area where the first nuclear bomb was exploded. The entire monument is surrounded by the White Sands Missle Range. Warning signs far to the west and east will let you know if the monument is closed.
Leaving the White Sands National Monument, we headed east to the town of Alamogordo. What was interesting about this town was that we noticed numerous billboards written solely in German! Here we were in a remote area of the desert southwest and we do not see signs in spanish, but German! Its understandable given the climate and the history of the area. There are also several military bases in the area.
Just like going to Mexico, we realize that Texas is just 40 miles south of us, so we just had to go! We entered into Texas and El Paso and stopped at the Chamizal National Memorial. Chamizal National Memorial celebrates Mexican-American friendship and goodwill. It is a memorial to the peaceful settlement of a long standing dispute over the location of the international boundary between El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez in Chihuahua. On August 29, 1963, after more than a century of arguing about who owned the peice of land that was created by the meandering Rio Grande, the question was finally settled by the Convention of the Chamizal. By this agreement, the Rio Grande was constrained within a concrete channel, which acts as the permanent border between the two nations. More than 5,000 people residing in the isputed area were relocated at the expense of both governments. In addition, a portion of the former Mexican land that now lay in the United States was set aside by the federal government for recreation and cultural use. Thus the birth of Chamizal National Memorial. The memorial is mostly a large park and cultural center and makes for a nice urban park.
Our drive home was an uneventful 5 hour ride. When we entered Arizona, we were welcomed by a spectacular sunset. Unfortunatly, by the time we got our cameras setup, we were only able to capture two pictures of it. Oh, well. Some images are best captured and held in the mid of the viewer.
|
