When I got up this (late) morning things were looking good. I hopped back on the highway and headed for Las Cruses, the biggest town on my way to White Sands. On the way there I passed through a town named "Truth or Consequences" which is the goofiest up until you pass through "Derry Arrey".

I arrived in Las Cruses about 2 hours later, and with plenty of time to make it to the White Sands dunes for sunset so I decided to explore the area a little. I saw a big mall off of the freeway so I decided to go in there and find a book on the area. On my way into the mall there was the Las Cruses museum of natural history so I went in. They had a really cool exhibit of insects and spiders with several living and exotic spiders on display. It was really quite cool. While I was there I asked someone there where the historic area of town was. Las Cruses as well as most of New Mexico is adobe country, full of lots of historical buildings many dating back to Spanish-Mexican rule. They also had some Internet terminals so I looked up the satellite weather maps. The weather was looking like it was going to hold out for the day.

After that I headed off to Mesilla, the historic area nearby. The areas is really old and has a really old town square and church although it's not an adobe church. I wandered around for a bit and then had some lunch at a little cantina. It was the most authentic and best Mexican food I've had since moving out of Mexico. On the way out I just happened to come across a building which was the oldest in town. It was now a gift shop but at one time had been the New Mexico state capital building as well as the courthouse where Billy the Kid was sentenced to hang.

And after that I headed a little further south to La Mesa, another historic town that someone had told me about. It was supposed to have an old adobe church. The drive there went through fields of chilies and orchards of Pecan trees as well as several other little towns. I also crossed the Rio Grande river.

One I got there I found the church and walked around it. It was cool and all but it wasn't one of the really cool churches so I didn't take a picture of it. In retrospect I wish I would have. While I was there I checked the map to see where I was as I knew this would be the southernmost point of my trip. While in La Mesa I was only about 12 miles from the Mexico border. I was tempted to just drive there but I figured that this was close enough. Besides it was time to head off for the dunes.

So, I few hours later I'm at White Sands and the weather is still looking Ok but it's still a few hours to sunset. I drive around the park for a while and do a little exploring, trying to figure out where I'm going to set up. While walking around on the dunes is pretty easy as the sand is fairly compacted, it is so blindingly bright white that I can hardly see even with dark sunglasses on. And while it's really not that hot out (mid-90s) the heat being reflected from the white sand seems worst. The sand itself is not snow white, it's more of a pale tan color but when the sun reflects it appears snow white. At some places the sand reflects just like glass.

As I walk around I'm frustrated by the fact that every sand dune seems to have footprints. I cannot find a pristine sand dune to take a picture of anywhere. Finally after a hour or so of trying I find an area that looks interesting. I still had about two hour before sunset though so I when back to the visitors center to do some reading to pass the time.

As sunset approaches so do the clouds. By the time the nice shadows appear of the dunes giving them definition, the sun is mostly covered by clouds and the light has turned flat and lifeless. And it doesn't look as if it's going to lift. I'm totally bummed. So many miles to drive and I lose the photos because of bad weather again. I wandered around the dunes for a while longer and then I ended up leaving right before sunset and heading off for Santa Fe, 350 miles away to the north.