NM, AZ & UT 2.0
We've now said goodbye to Texas and are headed north and west again into New Mexico. Our first stop is White Sands National Monument. This gypsum dune field is the largest of its kind on Earth.
The dune field here is not as towering as Great Sand Dunes National Park which we loved so much in Colorado, but the sea of white sands with the San Andres Mountains in the background is really spectacular.
We spent most of our time hiking through the middle of the dunes on the two longest trails in the park. This trail is the Alkali Flat Trail. It takes you through the largest dunes with little vegetation.
When you get to Alkali Flat, this is what you see. It seems like nothing, but it is the dry lakebed of Lake Otero. This lake filled the bottom of the Tularosa Basin covering 1,600 square miles. Unfortunately it dried up during the last ice age, but it was the birthplace of all the dunes you see.
Forming gypsum sand dunes is a time-consuming process. The gypsum originates in the mountain ranges on both sides of the national monument. When it rains, the water picks up small amounts of gypsum and runs off into the Tularosa Basin where it infiltrates into the ground water supply. When the area gets its seasonal rains, and the water table rises above the ground level, the gypsum is carried upwards forming Selenite which is the crystalline form of gypsum. These crystals are very brittle and quickly erode into the white sand you see in this photo.
I know that I said that there weren't really any plants in the sand dunes, but every once in a while there is an exception. Sometimes it's Yucca but in this case it's saltbush. Once the plant is firmly rooted it will grow rapidly to keep its photosynthesizing parts above the sand dune. Since the dunes are in constant motion, they will actually pass through these plants leaving only small piles of sand and plant behind. This is one of the many ways that the environment helps to hold the sand in place.
If you look at a map of White Sands National Monument, you'll realize that they are surrounded by an active missile range. The website warns you that, "From time to time, debris from missile tests falls into the monument and is buried by sand. If you see any strange objects, do not touch them as they may still be able to detonate." Luckily Mike and I hiked all 5 trails in the park without incident.
When we came into the park we certainly didn't expect to see "snow" removal equipment at work. But as you can see, the dunes go wherever they see fit and by that I mean wherever the wind blows them even if it's across the road. If you read some of the roadside signs they'll tell you that nothing in this park is anchored permanently to the ground. Not the trail markers, the picnic benches, or the informational signs. Every road would get buried almost overnight if the Park Service did not keep on top of it.
National monuments, generally, do not have the kind of infrastructure that national parks do. So at White Sands there are no organized campgrounds. Luckily you can come to an area like this and backcountry camp in the dunes. There are only 10 sites and unfortunately it's only a mile hike to them but it's still nice that they offer this opportunity. If we hadn't camped in Great Sand Dunes National Park, we might have done it in this area.
While hiking for the entire day we only came across two insects. This is a shame because moths seem to love White Sands National Monument. Scientists have identified over 650 species of them in the park, of which several are found only in the Gypsum dunes.
This guy is the second. Both Mike and I were thrilled to find this beetle because we've never seen anything quite like it. This is Megetra cancellata a member of the Blister Beetle family. Luckily we took his black and red colouration as a warning not to touch but to take photos only. We're fairly certain that we got the species right because these guys only live in the Chihuahuan desert. This beetle is capable of screeching a caustic chemical called Cantharudin. When it comes in contact with human skin it causes blisters, hence the common name of this beetle's family.
White Sands Missile Range is a US Army testing site that covers 3,200 sq mi making it the largest military installation in the United States. White Sands Missile Range was comissioned on 9 July 1945, to test and engineer German and American long-range rockets for all branches of the US military. Just seven days after its formation, White Sands Missile Range was the site of the first atomic bomb test, code named Trinity. Unfortunately the atomic test site is not open to the public so we were unable to see it.
On the way in I thought I'd take a picture of a small section of the White Sands Missile Range. It's pretty much a big flat open desert area where missiles are tested both on planes, from the ground, and from military platforms.
This is Wernher von Braun's V-2, Vergeltungswaffe 2, missile. It is the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile. The most complete one in the world is housed at the museum at White Sands Missile Range. The missile was developed during the Second World War by Nazi Germany as a "vengeance weapon". Its original design was to attack Allied cities in retaliation for the Allied bombings against German cities. Fortunately for the allies it was not very effective at its original mission, but in later years it was very useful in helping scientists explore the upper atmosphere. It was also integral in the United States winning the space race. On June 20th 1944 the V-2 rocket became the first artificial object to travel into outer space by crossing the Kármán line. (See definition here.)
I had never seen one of these in person and was extremely excited! I can remember sitting in my parents' family room watching Desert Storm and Desert Shield on the television; General Schwarzkopf and Tom Brokaw giving me updates on troop movements, battles that were underway, and future plans for victory. In the background of so many newscasts was the Patriot missile. So I guess seeing it here in the flesh was very reminiscent of my late childhood.
This is the "Little Boy" missile. The name may seem familiar to you because it was the codename for the atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Again, the test runs for this bombing were done at White Sands Missile Range.
Not everything in the outdoor museum was a missile. Some of them were missile guidance or missile tracking systems. This is the Intercept Ground Optical Recorder or IGOR ("eye-gore"). It's a tracking telescope that provides photographic records of a missile's activities such as altitude, intercept distance, and viability. The IGOR is able to photograph missiles up to 100 miles away which makes it ideal in a testing ground as large as this one.
Here is a 360ﾟ shot of the outdoor museum area. It took us hours to walk around and read everything but we're really glad that we went to see it. Also it was my first time on a working military base. When we came in we had to go through a background check to even be allowed to visit the museum!
There was an indoor portion of the museum as well. Some of it went over early war history of New Mexico, such as the Buffalo soldiers and the Mexican American war. But the majority was dedicated to more modern concerns. Here Mike is looking at 2 additional missile tracking systems.
This was a cool artifact on display. When George Lucas was gathering sound effects for the Star Wars movies, he came here to collect audio samples. In thanks he sent them one of Darth Vader's helmets!
One of the side rooms of the museum is dedicated to the Manhattan project. It specifically focused on the portions that occurred at White Sands Missile Range. The item that you see above was put together by the scientists working on the Manhattan project at a ranch on the property of White Sands Missile Range. This is a 1/3 size model of the uranium core that went into the first atomic test. After seeing the outdoor and the indoor museum, we moved along to do some more mundane stuff such as visiting the Post Office and finding something to eat for dinner.
Walmart's discount section was well stocked today. We had Tilapia with wine and herbs, green bean almondine and veggie rice pilaf. Yum, but so many pans to clean up afterwards.
Mike has been wanting to go to this park since the beginning of the trip. He loves the idea of It searching for quartz crystals, geodes, jasper, perlite, and many other minerals.
At the visitors center they show you examples of the minerals that you can find within the park's boundaries.
The park is located in the Little Florida Mountains. As you can see they are a range of low mountains that have become "sky islands" due to the arid desert expanses between the rounded peaks.
Mike took the rock hammer and looked hard for just one geode, but alas no luck today.
We left and headed towards Tempe, Arizona but along the way I kept seeing signs for this roadside attraction. Hokie I know, but for the $2 entrance fee I wanted to go especially when I read that there were three sheds full of crazy kitschy stuff!!
Unfortunately they were doing renovations and we were unable to access the majority of the museum. They just had the final exhibit in the middle of the gift shop. I refused to show it to you here. I think that you should go back after the renovations are done and see it. I plan to. That way you can decide for yourself what it is.
Welcome to Saguaro National Park, another portion of the trip that Mike was so excited to share with me. Neither of us had ever seen a Saguaro growing in the wild.
There are 2 sections to the park but we only explored one this time. We were in the Tucson Mountain District. It is about 10 miles west of Tucson. We will get to see the other portion, just not on this pass through Arizona.
As you can see we got to the park quite early. We plan to do somewhere in the neighborhood of 14 miles and the weather was supposed to get up into the mid 90's.
Here you can see Mike signing us in at the trail registry. When we looked at the times that most other people sign in, they were quite late, 11 am to 2 pm! Just a note to all new hikers... these are possibly some of the worst times of day to start a hike. It just means that you miss all of the cool parts of the day in which the animals are the most active. Not to mention the fact that you also need a lot less water when the sun is not beating down on you. Normally Mike and I don't carry the prerequisite amount of water, but I have to tell you here we do 4 to 5 liters a person.
Each Saguaro seems to have its own personality. I particularly liked the symmetry of this one.
The trails in Saguaro National Park are really well maintained. Even on some of the most difficult hikes the elevation change is not all difficult....
And the views on the way up are really worth it.
I had no idea that there would be so many Saguaro cacti at all elevations.
Plus once you reach the top of Mt. Wasson you have some really good views, even if the air quality isn't the best that day. The large white blob that you can see ahead of Mike in the photograph is a copper mine. There are so many of them in this area.
This is a very special type of Saguaros cactus. It is called a Crested Saguaro. The National Park Service says this about them…
Even when saguaro cacti grow in their normal form, they rarely grow symmetrically. Saguaros sometimes grow in odd or misshapen forms. The growing tip occasionally produces a fan-like form which is referred to as crested or cristate. Though these crested saguaros are somewhat rare, over 25 have been found within the boundaries of the park. Biologists disagree as to why some saguaros grow in this unusual form. Some speculate that it is a genetic mutation. Others say it is the result of a lightning strike or freeze damage. At this point we simply do not know what causes this rare, crested form.
In the entire park there are only 25 known examples. On the west side there are only 8. We felt lucky to spot one on our own in the park without knowing where it was. Kind of special to just come upon it.
Here is a view of the Rincone mountain range from the location of the Crested Saguaro.
The Saguaros are very slow-growing cactus. They grow about 1" a year for the first 10 years, won't flower until they're about 30, and won't grow their first arm until around 65. So when you see a cactus like this you can get the idea that it's probably around 150-plus years old.
After hiking 10 miles around Mt. Wasson we moved onto a more remote portion of the park. When I saw this cactus I thought it was adorably cute, Dr. Seuss-ish and aptly named the Teddy Bear Cholla. It is full of soft looking white spines. When you touch them they are hollow and make a pleasant rattling sound. Little did I know I was going to run into this cactus again...well not me...
I like this photo of Mike because it shows how long it takes a Saguaro cactus to get up to enormous heights. The majority of them look like this and they are 25 to 35 years old. Their growth rate depends on rainfall conditions, shade and what other plants are in the area competing for resources.
In the area of the park in which we did our last hike the trail was questionably marked. Luckily Mike and I had a Google map downloaded and so we went to navigate our way back to the trail. Unfortunately on the way Mike got reintroduced to my Teddy Bear Cholla. Not so cute now is it. And those nasty spines have barbed ends!!
Many of the giant Saguaro cacti, Carnegiea gigantea, have holes near the top. They are made in a mutualistic relationship with the Gila Woodpeckers, Melanerpes uropygialis, or the Gilded Flickers, Colaptes chrysoides. These two species actually excavate cavities from the Saguaros, but other birds reuse the nest holes created by these woodpeckers.
Unfortunatly this picture from the Phoenix Botanical Gardens is the only one I have so far of the woodpeckers demonstrating this relationship. Though perhaps when we come back to see Saguaro National Park's other half I will be luckier.
Mike spent all day looking for a "huggy" Saguaro to take a photo with... after his interaction with the Chollo I was surprised he still wanted it 😂
When we ended our walk the sun was going down on Panther and Safford peaks.
On Friday we met Mike's Aunt Michelle at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park. This gem is about 50 miles from downtown Phoenix, but well worth the trip. It is one of the oldest botanical gardens west of the Mississippi. It was founded in 1924 as a desert plant research facility and “living museum”.
The park has about 2,600 species of arid plants from around the world. There are multiple agaves, aloes, boojum tree, cork oak, and, in the Eucalyptus grove, one of the largest red gumtrees in the United States. He is nicknamed Mr. Big and all the gums are well received by the local birds and flying insects.
The park stays true to its mission by re-homing indigenous plants. As you can see this crested Saguaro is being stabilized after being re-planted.
The arboretum was founded by William Boyce Thompson (1869 - 1930), a mine engineer whose house you can still see in the arboretum today. You can see his intentions for the property in his own words.
I have in mind far more than mere botanical propagation. I hope to benefit the State and the Southwest by the addition of new products. A plant collection will be assembled which will be of interest not only to the nature lover and the plant student, but which will stress the practical side, as well to see if we cannot make these mesas, hillsides, and canyons far more productive and of more benefit to mankind. We will bring together and study the plants of the desert countries, find out their uses, and make them available to the people. It is a big job, but we will build here the most beautiful, and at the same time the most useful garden of its kind in the world.
From a visitor's perspective the park does a great job living up to his lofty goals.
The park also does a semi-annual plant sale, and on one of the succulents I saw this Filigree Skimmer, Pseudoleon superbus. I wondered why I had never seen one before but it is the only member of this Genus in North America so I was lucky he sat for a photo.
As we walked along the path Mike stopped in front of his two succulent nemeses, Sotol, Dasylirion liophyllum, in the front and the Teddy Bear Chollo in the back.
Later on in our walk we found ourselves in a gazebo and heard a bat squeaking. We found him all alone in the eves. We hope this guy finds his way home tomorrow night.
Since I brought up Mr. Big, I thought that you might want to see it in bloom. There are so few places in America where you can see a gumtree this large. It took me right back to being in Australia! But in some ways it was even better because usually I'm in Australia when they're not in bloom.
One of the last sections of the park that we walked through is a demonstration garden. They have these sculptures all throughout this area. They may look like beautiful abstract sculptures but they're actually solitary bee homes. This is the kind of thing that I could get on board with putting in the backyard!
Just a little distance from the Bee sculptures we saw this guy. He's a Black Carpenter Bee, and even though the sculpture bee home would be too small for him, I like to see these pollinators buzzing around the garden.
One of the best things about hanging out with Mike's Aunt Michelle is that she likes being outside as much as we do! We would not have known about the State Park without her input, and we may not have gone here either.
On the way out there was one piece left of the Chihuly Glass exhibit. I love the way this sculpture complements the natural desert landscape.
When we got there we found out that the current installation in the garden was by a Japanese American artist Jun Kaneko. He makes enormous clay sculptures that complement the natural world around them. He says that he hopes that just looking at them makes a statement to someone's soul.
As we walked around the garden a remarkable number of the cacti were in bloom. Here is just one example. Aunt Michelle said that if we were here in the Spring the entire garden would be exploding with cactus blossoms.
Okay, I know it's getting ridiculous but I really do like his sculptures… plus it's extremely funny to watch Mike poke at them.
One of the succulents that we were unable to obtain but liked very much was the Queen Victoria Agave. Perhaps we'll have to see if we can get one after I return home.
The gardens also did an incredibly fun job with these pumpkins. I surmise that they took pumpkin Vine before it was dry, made it into arms, attached them to the pumpkins and then wrapped them in gauze. The final effect was extremely amusing as they were tucked in around many of the plants. Happy Hallowe'en!!
Here is Mike and his Aunt Michelle standing in front of a giant Saguaro. It gives you a really good idea of how big some of these giants get even in the middle of the city.
Here you can see viewing tubes that are set up around the Botanical Gardens. When you look through them, they direct you towards one of the more difficult-to-see aspects of the arboretum. This one was helping viewers to see how the woodpeckers build their homes in the Saguaros.
There was a second indoor exhibit at the botanical gardens. It is celebrating El Dia de los Muertos. Each of the pieces that you see above was done by an individual artist, and the pieces are meant to celebrate or bring attention to a very specific item. The one on the left was discussing water shortages in the Southwest, the one on the top right is celebrating Señora de las Aguas. I hope that you can appreciate how serious the water situation is for the people of Arizona, making water a very popular topic in this exhibit; and the one on the bottom right remembers a man who died crossing the Rio Grande trying to come to America to make a better life for his family. Both Mike and I were very taken by this exhibit and so glad to be sharing this cultural expression of the American Southwest.
Do you see the adorable golden cactus that are in the center of the sundial? We got one of these to bring home! Aren't they cute!
One of the last things that we did before leaving the botanical gardens was to see the butterfly house. They had a lot of these beautiful zebra longwings flying about.
As we left the butterfly house, Mike spotted these. They are designed to help bugs find a home in your backyard while being biodegradable and extremely attractive. I can imagine that this is going to be a project that we do upon returning home.
Do you know what this is? The beginning of a dream…
Mike and I are going to be here on Halloween. We're then going to be out of communication for about 14 days while we hike to Cabazon. Don't ask... if you have to, you can't understand.
