Is that Snow or Gypsum? and where is that Giant Pistachio?

 Usually I tall take all these great pictures of plants when I visit a National Park.  Not so with White Sands National Park, NM (not Monument as the signs down the highway suggest), but this park is different.  It is a valley of gypsum.  The species that live there are adapted to both the gypsum and the white of the gypsum sand.  It is hot and dry, with little water (unless you dig for it as the Native Apaches did).  

Since we are not Apaches, and we are in our 60s, I went in to ask the Ranger about the Alkali Flat Trail (5 miles) in the back of the Park.  He looked at us in a horrified manner and said "I think you ought to know it is tough going, up and down the sandy hills.  I don't recommend it."  Hum? now that just puts the challenge right into the hike when someone tells me that.  "Well maybe I will only be 1/2 BADASS" I told him (i.e. doing only half the hike).  He just laughed at me.  

So the next morning my partner and I got up with the birdies, and started up- and down the Alkali Trail.  I will tell you, it truly is not for the faint of heart, because it has so many hills, and if you start out in the hotter part of the day, it will not be pleasant.  Believe me there is no shade.  

And pretty soon, everything seems to look very far away.  The perspective can be a little overwhelming, but it is the starkness of those hills that are beautiful.  We did finish the hike, and although tired, I told the ranger "we are indeed completely BADASS for 60 yas."

There were several species of animal that I was looking for in this NP, including the white earless lizard.  It is not easy to see anything over those sands, but my partner finally picked up some movement towards the end of the hike.  What we did see was a lot of was tracks of different species.  This is how you know there are definitely critters in them hills.  I wish we had been able to take an evening hike out on the hills.  We might have picked up a lot of the species such as fox and owl that we were looking for and the stars would have been spectacular.  Oh well, you have to have something to come back to eh?

Alamogordo, NM is the 13 miles from this National Park (which by the way, was part of the missile range in those parts).  We stayed at the KOA in town, and we found a lovely Mexican restaurant right in a small strip mall called Juan's Cactus Cafe that made spectacular green chile stew and fried bread.  Fried bread is so bad for 

you, but tastes so good!  

Now you might wonder why we are in this part of the U.S.A.  The last time we were tooling down Highway 40, my partner started to see "Come see the Giant Pistachio."  I informed him that we were not going that way and he was disappointed, so I made sure to put Alamogordo on the route, because this is where it was.  I am happy to report that we made it to that giant pistachio and pistachio ice cream at McMillans Pistachio Farm, and everyone is getting pistachios for Christmas.