Photo Journal of our Homeward Travels

 Because White Sands National Monument does not have camping we stayed at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park nearby. We had briefly seen White Sands 10 years ago and now wanted to explore it more thoroughly. These glistening white sands near Alamogordo, New Mexico have engulfed 275 square miles of desert and have created the largest gypsum dune fields in the world.

 Enjoying our picnic lunch while watching families sliding on the dunes. These unique ramadas (picnic shelters) on this hard packed graded parking lot reminded Jim of ice fishing huts on a snow covered lake.

 The park with it's glistening white sand is ringed by two mountain ranges and are surrounded by the White Sands Missile Range.

 Blossoming Yucca at evening light.

 This cactus looks like it should be soft.

 While traveling east of Roswell, NM it took us 85 kilometers to find this "rest stop" there was no other place to stop.

 Our night stop at Oasis State Park near the New Mexico/Texas border included a tiny lake and sand dunes.

 McDonald's will not be running out of beef any time soon by the number of HUGE feed lots we passed along Hwy 70 in New Mexico.

 We spent two nights at this very popular park near Amarillo, Texas. The terra cotta badland referred to as the Grand Canyon of Texas has great views from the overlooks.

 Adventurous rock climbers made their way to the mouth of the cave. Click on photo to enlarge.

  There were many hiking and biking trails for the adventuresome to explore.