Back to Amarillo-Different Route, Different Scenery

We took a different route through Arizona, down through Prescott into North Phoenix where we stopped for the night at Dessert Sands RV Park.

The next morning we pulled into Agave Gulch RV Park at Davis-Monthan AFB; it's one of our favorite parks. They just added an enclosed (fenced- in) dog park with an agility course that Tazzy just loves. Look at this adorable Airstream amongst the dessert landscape. We stopped the Soldier Horse Museum - mostly a tourist trap. While walking the dogs we came across these Ellipigo bikes - definitely something I've never seen before. They work just like the Elliptic Exercise Machine. One thing though, is that they don't have a bike seat; you can only stand while cycling.



We decided to take a different route back to Texas. We drove through Billy the Kid & Jicarilla Apache country in the mountains & rugged mesa's of New Mexico.
Check out this gorgeous view.

Those Ponderosa pine trees smelled like Christmas.

Further down the road near Alamongordo, we stopped by the White Sands Monument. This time we drove into the national park - it's "Like no place else on earth."

Here a father & son are preparing to sled down the dunes. We were told that earlier this year, during spring break, the parks gift shop sold over 900 saucer sleds in one day to college students. That must have been a blast!

As I climbed to the top of a dune, I saw this group of people in the far distance. It looks like snow!

White Sands National Monument is the largest pure gypsum field in the world covering 275 square miles. Unlike dunes made of quartz based sand crystals, gypsum does not convert the sun's energy into heat, so you can walk on the sand in your bare feet even during the hottest summer months.

There are 4 types of dunes that exist at White Sands, Dome (low mounds), Barchan (crescent-shaped), Transverse (long ridges of sand), and Parabolic (plants anchor the arms of barchan dunes & invert their shape).

Here's Liam on top of the world.

He climbed to the top, but immediately turned around to go back down to the RV - Okay, so now he can say "Been there, done that!"

When we finally got back to Amarillo, we heard there was a snowstorm earlier in the week. Glad we missed that. Until next time...