But I was taking my new hire car (a Chevy Impala this time) on a big tour of western Texas and New Mexico, and Roswell was on the way, so I popped in. More significantly, I visited White Sands National Monument and Guadalupe Mountains National Park. My next blog will follow in just 1 or 2 days and will have a bit more detail about where I'm actually staying...in the meantime I'll let the pictures do the talking.
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| Roswell. Aliens. Etc. Yawn. In fairness I think that sums up the attitude of the locals as well. |
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| White Sands National Monument. You see how it got the name. The sand is as soft and fine as flour, and it looks like snow even close up. |
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| White Sands National Monument again. Texas and New Mexico are full of public picnic stalls, complete with barbecue grill. In this case, you just have to remind yourself that it's sand and not snow. |
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| Halfway up Guadalupe Peak. The National Parks website says this is a hike of 6-8 hours. I presume their target demographic is the Golden Girls. I did it in 4 and a half. |
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| View from the top of Guadalupe Peak, 9000 feet above sea level. (The car park where you start climbing is 6000 feet up.) |
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| Another view from the top of Guadalupe Peak |
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| Looking back at the peak from Route 180 |
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| A typical view from a rural Texas highway |
