Thursday, March 6, 2003
Oliver Lee State Park, NM - Mar 3-6
Located just south of Alamogordo (fat cottonwood), Oliver Lee SP is a very pleasant place to stay for a few nights and check out the local points of interest. Dry camping or water & electric are available; we opted for W&E. The volunteer in the Visitor Center was quite chatty, with numerous recommendations for places to visit as well as restaurants and cheap (relatively) gas. He was also a "period instrument" buff who built his own harpsichord.
The park itself is at the mouth of Dog Canyon, fed by year-round springs that have attracted people for over 6000 years: Prehistoric Indians, Apaches, and European settlers have all called this area home. The park looks out across the arid Tularosa Basin to White Sands Natl Mon & Missile Range, one of the world's great natural wonders -- 275 square miles of glistening white gypsum sand. The gypsum was deposited at the bottom of a shallow sea that covered the area 250 million years ago, and eventually solidified. 
Now, since the Tularosa Basin has no outlet to the sea, water pools in low spots, dissolving the gypsum and forming sand as the water evaporates. The dunes are ever-changing and slowly growing, relentlessly driven by strong SW winds, covering everything in their path. Our first stops in the park, Playa Trail and Big Dune Nature Trail, are on the edge of the dunes, where plants are still abundant, adapting to the advancing sands. Further in, we hiked the Alkali Flats Trail at Heart of the Sands, where plant & animal life are scarce indeed and you are surrounded by nothing but white sand. The only thing breaking the silence was the occasional roar of the ominous-looking Stealth planes from nearby Holloman AFB.
White Sands Missile Range completely surrounds the park, and makes its presence known in the form of Highway and Park closures. On two separate days, US70 was closed five times for an hour each (fortunately NOT when we needed to travel on it), while who-knows-what was going on -- but we could hear low rumbles while inside our trailer at the State Park, 25 miles away.There are two main trails at Oliver Lee: a short Interpretive Trail & Boardwalk, which gave us the opportunity to do some birdwatching, and the Dog Canyon/Eyebrow Trail, a 5.5-mile trail that climbs 3100 feet into Lincoln Natl Forest. We hiked the first mile, with only a 700 foot gain, which was plenty for us.
One of our host's recommendations in Alamogordo was Maria's, a Mexican restaurant that serves chili-relleno burritos -- a chili relleno and beans wrapped in a flour tortilla. It was delicious! And inexpensive.
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 4:59 PM 
