Let not the sands of time get in your lunch.

I parked just outside of White Sands overnight so that I could get in first thing in the morning. Even though it is winter, deserts can get hot, so I wanted to do the hiking before it got to late in the morning. Fortunately the park was open, often shut down during nearby missile tests, and there were few people around. I did one of the long hiking trails as well as hit many of the shorter interpretive trails as well. I love the views around and the beauty of the gypsum, especially in the light of dawn. After doing a bit of Tokyo-drifting around the parking areas by locking the rear brakes and sliding sideways (horray for rental cars with full insurance), I headed out to continue the journey. these are some of my favorite pictures outside of Yellowstone and Yosemite.

Road Amusement.

After leaving Carlsbad Cavern, I headed off towards White Sands NM. Just outside the caverns, I found a small abandoned (for the winter?) amusement park with go-kart track and miniature golf course. There is something that I just like about abandoned sites, so I couldn't help but stop to take a few pictures and look around.

On the road, I passed a couple of small towns. One had in its town square a monument to those that work the drilling platforms. I got out and took a few pics; even one with a sheepishly humored tone. I stopped by a few roadside cemeteries along the way to look at the old tombstones. Several times there were deer to be found along the road that I was able to capture on camera once or twice.

Although it was a long drive, it was fairly pleasant to go through a few small mountain towns and see the really rural areas. Several operated as ski resorts during some of the colder times and I even came across an old train trestle that had a nice setting around it just outside of Cloudcroft.I made a quick stop in Alamogordo at the Space Museum. Even though it was closed for the day, one could still walk around the grounds for a bit to see various historical artifacts, such as a V-2 rocket from WWII Germany, rocket sleds, and even the burial site for Ham, the first chimp that traveled into space. In the geek world, this town is also known as the Atari burial grounds; the site where millions of unsold copies of the E.T. game were buried. I drove to the actual site that had a placemark listing on Google Earth and it is pretty nondescript since everything is filled in and looks like natural landscape, however I was able to see dozens of rabbits scatter in the headlights. All in all, it was interesting enough and I was able to keep myself quite entertained.

Through caverns measureless to man; Down to a sunless sea.

While I would have liked to visit this park during the summer months to watch the thousands of bats as they leave the opening, winter can just be as nice since one is protected underground from the bitter cold above. After getting my NPS stamp for the park, I signed up for a couple of different guided cave tours as I figured I wouldn't be satisfied without doing at least something off the normal beaten path. The ranger leading the tour was quite knowledgeable and excited about the different aspects of the caves. Although the path we took was marked with tape, it was still more of a caving experience than simply walking down a concrete pathway. I really wished I had thought to bring the tripod on this trip, but packing last minute often has one forgetting a few things. I spent two days at the park here and slept in the car off the nearby main road.

The immense size of the place is amazing and hard to fathom. since there were relatively few people around, I just laid back in one of the amphitheaters and stared at the ceiling and listed to the sounds of near silence for a long while.


Yeah, it's pretty big.The natural entrance.
Bat encased by stalagmite.
I found this formation to be quite nice and alluring. Ahh, beauty in nature.


Even the bathrooms had formations.

Looking up through the Natural Entrance.

Diana Ross's husband died afer falling off a cliff. I guess there is a mountain high enough.

After leaving El Paso, I headed up to Guadalupe Mountain National Park. This mountain is the highest point in Texas at 8,749 feet. I tried to get in early enough to climb to the campsite, but it was too late and I had to park at a nearby rest stop to sleep for the evening. I met a trio of brothers traveling that had attempted to do the hike that day but had to turn back when one of them started getting hit with altitude sickness. I had forgotten to pack a spoon, so I borrowed one of theirs at camp and chatted for a while as I cooked my dinner.

The hike itself was a pretty tough 4 hour climb (though it only took half that to get back) that fortunately had me in the leeward side for most of the climb. The panoramic views were great and it was nice to have the mountain nearly to myself with only seeing one other person the whole trip. I was a bit disappointed to see some metal monument to American Airlines and stagecoaches at the top (as I prefer a Leave No Trace approach), but the view was definitely grand.


Panoramic view from the peak.The highest bridge in Texas; just below the peak.

Marker at the top.

"If Walt Disney saw this, he'd turn over in his icebox!"

Kristen and I picked up seasonal passes to Disney yesterday so we could start visiting the parks before it got crowded for the year. We decided to hit the Magic Kingdom first. Most of the park is the same as usual, so there isn't a lot to report. I was in pretty rare form and had much of the boat laughing more at my jokes than the guides on the Jungle Cruise, mostly because they were probably more risque than the authorized Disney dialog. My favorites are always the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse as it is always special in some way. We watched the light parade go by and hit the haunter mansion and came out in time to get some shots of the fireworks. the castle was all dolled up in pretty lights that changed color. Next time I'll try to remember to bring the tripod so I can get some decent low-light shots.

Beware of geeks bearing .GIFs

For all those female blog readers that are dating, every have dated, or will ever consider dating a geek, here is a decent little video that might be worth checking out. Yes, the video clip is taken from Diggnation which is a couple of geeks sitting around talking about some of the week's popular user-news stories posted on digg.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG5x7-waI38

I tried sniffing coke once, but the ice cubes got stuck in my nose.

Kristen, the girl from whom I had met when I bought my theater chairs, and I went to the ICE! exhibit today. It was supposed to be a surprise, but it was guessed before we even got there. I had first attended last year and enjoyed it enough to return, so even though it was a long day trip, it was kind of nice and enjoyable. The sculptures were well made and seeing this kind of makes me want to attend the Harbin Ice Festival some year.