Shortly after crossing into New Mexico around 10:30 a.m. we started seeing patches of poppies along the I-10. For the next 70 miles...yep, 70 miles...here is a sample of the brilliantly golden vistas to which we were treated.
After posting this one on FB our friends, Donnie & Pam, commented that they didn't see any of these when they drove through there eight days earlier on their way home to Cape Breton. Our timing is so good sometimes! Those quick comments are one of the several reasons I'm happy to have finally joined FB.
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Continuing our drive: As we approach Las Cruces, NM from the west there is this great view of the Organ Mountains overlooking the city.
Northeast of Las Cruces we saw a few more acres of poppies as we approached the White Sands Missile Range.
On the highway as we neared the White Sands National Monument there were fabulous mirages making it appear as though water was flowing across. Doesn't that look like water?
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This is past the Visitor's Center inside White Sands National Monument before the road itself becomes covered with sand that looks exactly like packed snow.
We've been here before but will always stop if we can because it is unique and beautiful.
Rich and the girls are climbing the dune toward me.
The sand is cool and dry so it brushes off easily; I love walking in it barefoot...not Rich.
The area covered by the sand is vast; the glistening sand covers 275 square miles.
This was the moon from where I stood on the dunes at 4:00 p.m.
And this is a shot of our RV and car in the parking lot below.
The photo of the yucca below is number 7,397 taken with the Canon SX40HS we bought on January 11th...I suppose I'll keep the camera...it's had a pretty good trial run...haha! I had returned to the RV after climbing the sand dunes and was sitting at our table when I shot this through the window at a distance Rich estimated to be at least a couple hundred yards. Doesn't it look kinda like a modern art painting of a pineapple in the snow? No? Um, okay.
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Our day was far from over.
We continued our drive through beautiful southwest New Mexico.
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Rich stopped to fill up at a tribal gas station in Mescalero. Seeing this in the parking lot piqued my curiosity so I walked over to chat. These are elk antlers and the two lying on the ground are a matched pair...rare.
In this photo my new best friends, as the kids would call them, are searching through the truck for an antler to show me what the blood marrow inside the antlers looks like. No, it's not runny or mushy or anything of the sort. Antlers which are not sold to lighting or furniture or souvenir makers can be sold to an Asian country where the marrow is used to make medicines. Although rare, elk can have mad cow disease so of course it is not legal to use the marrow for anything in our country.
This is what was inside the pickup truck; they had purchased all of these on Saturday from guys who go out into the countryside collecting them after the elk have shed their antlers. The fresh brown antlers are worth the most. If you've found any recently, my friends here will pay you $8.00 a pound. By the way, they weigh less this year than usual as a result of the change in elk diet because of the drought conditions.
This is why you keep coming back, right? For the detailed information on subjects that you had no idea you would be this interested in...giggle!
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From there we drove to an elevation above 7,000 feet where the mountains were covered with pine and cedar trees.
Before dropping back into lower hills with sparse ground cover.
And the sun set behind us.
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See what this camera can do? We were on the road much later than we are usually because we had a special destination.
Roswell, NM...always an experience. Just you hide 'n watch for the next post!
Lovin' Life ~~ With Its Endless New Experiences
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