“Peacocks can’t fly above 7,000 feet” -HST

Aguirre Springs, New Mexico – December 22, 2006

We went hiking in the rugged Organ Mountains northeast of Las Cruces today. The hike today started at 5,500 feet and rose to 6,800 in a four-mile loop that took us over three hours. The hike included a close overlook of the White Sands Missile test facility at the base of the mountains. The views and vistas were stunning as we climbed through the snow and boulders. From 6,500 feet we could see the White Sands National Monument white sand dunes 40 miles distant.


We stumble upon animal tracks and excrement in the mud and snow and try to guess what left the signs. Sometimes I see only Mrs. Phred’s footprints ahead in the snow and realize we are off the trail again.

We were listening around 1 PM Mountain time for a sonic boom from the returning shuttle, but it was decided at the last minute that the shuttle could land at Canaveral, rather than diverting to the White Sands Space Harbor below.



On the hike, looking down at the government base in the desert, I wondered if we might be seeing a secret base, even the fabled Los Alamos. Big things happened here in New Mexico from 1943 to 1945.

“…And these atomic bombs which science burst upon the world that night were strange even to the men who used them.” - H. G. Wells, The World Set Free, 1914

Trinity Site, where the world's first atomic bomb was exploded at 5:29:45 AM on July 16, 1945, is open to the public only twice a year--on the first Saturday in April and October. Trinity is located on the northern end of the 3,200-square-mile White Sands Missile Range below us, between the towns of Carrizozo and Socorro. Visitors need to make a 170-mile drive with no services available. We can see the Southern end of the missile range from our perch.


A one-hour visit to Trinity’s inner fenced area will result in a whole body exposure of one-half to one milliroentgen. In comparison, flying coast to coast in an airliner gives an exposure of between three and five milliroentgens on each trip. Smoking a pack a day adds 40 milliroentgens of exposure in a year.

The heat of the blast melted the desert sand and turned it into a green glassy substance. The green glass is called Trinitite and can still be seen in the area. At one time Trinitite completely covered the depression made by the explosion. Afterward, the depression was filled and much of the Trinitite was taken away by the Nuclear Energy Commission. The remaining Trinitite is still radioactive and should not be picked up as a souvenir.

Los Alamos, New Mexico itself is in a remote location 200 miles north of the White Sands missile test area, about 40 miles west of Santa Fe. It’s near the Bandolier National Monument which contains archeological remnants of Indians that once inhabited the area.

Here’s a link to an album with way too many pictures of the Organ Mountains, cactus in the snow and wild Texas horses.

Mescalero Apaches

White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

We left Ruidoso early today and passed by the Apache Casino on the way out of town. Indians are exempt by treaty from many state laws and tribes can operate casinos and sell cigarettes with no state taxes. These tribes once reckoned descent though women and the men religiously avoided their mother-in-laws.



About 1,700 Mescalero Apaches live on their reservation of 2,000,000 acres. There are 4,000 acres that are suited for agriculture (although Apaches have little inclination to farm) and another 500,000 acres are appropriate for grazing cattle and horses. The 25-mile drive though the reservation was not what you might expect. It is a long climb through the reservation up a winding wooded valley to an elevation of 9,000 feet. There are many small Indian ranches with lush pastures, Hereford cows and painted horses, some of which were on the road. No feathers or warrior bonnets. No marketing of trinkets. Just a quiet Sunday morning drive though lovely woodland and pasture.

The bright yellow (autumn) trees with white bark that we have been seeing are aspens, which grow at elevations above 7,000 feet. The aspen leaves shimmer in the wind like no other tree. They mix everywhere with giant pines. There is no sign of the pine beetle infestations that have killed hundreds of millions of pine trees in Alaska and in most of the rest of the US. Perhaps this pine population is isolated by the desert?

As we left the reservation, we found free municipal tennis courts in the small ski resort of Cloudcroft. I lost 6-2, 6-0. I blame the altitude. Peacocks are often unable to fly at this elevation.

After the tennis game we ride down 4,000 feet to Alamogordo, using the transmission to conserve the brakes, and then on to the 300-square-mile white gypsum dunes of the White Sands National Monument. We tour White Sands on the motorbike and see an Apache dune mouse scurry over the road. The creatures of the desert are nocturnal and most, like the Apache dune mouse, have evolved a pure white colouring to shield them from predators. We shed our shoes and climb the dunes barefoot. As we drive 30 miles at the park's speed limit, we are continuously overtaken and passed by SUVs in a hurry to see the dunes and desert creatures at very high speed.




About 10 million years ago, the Earth's crust began to settle at White Sands along fault lines running north and south. A huge basin was formed between the Sacramento Mountains in the east and the San Andreas mountain range to the west. Melting snow washed sediments into a large lake, which became saturated with gypsum. As the climate warmed, the lake evaporated and this area began to form into the ever-changing white dunes, which are 97% gypsum.

We are settled now in Elephant Butte lake, just North of Truth-Or-Consequences, New Mexico