Framedlight

  That Wednesday was to be our last full day in southern New Mexico. As most of our family is nuts about aviation and space travel, going to the New Mexico Museum of Space History was an obvious thing to do. To get there we had to drive across the Tularosa Basin, past the White Sands Park and the Missile Range to the foothills of the Sacramento Mountains and the town of Alamogordo. As you can see it was a beautiful day and at last we were able to take our jumpers off.  Why Alamogordo in this remote corner of the US, for a space museum? Much of the early work on the space programme took place on the Missile Range and a Space Hall of Fame was established here in 1973. This was the foundation for the museum, which opened in 1976 and also has a planetarium and iMax cinema. We had our lunch in the car park looking at the view back over the Tularosa Basin to the San Andres Mountains. There are a number of artefacts to see outside the museum and we had a thorough look at them. These are sound

As we were in Organ on Highway 70 we decided to make the quick journey north to the San Augustin Pass. Here the road goes through an extremely narrow valley between the Organ Mountains on one side and the San Augustin Mountains, a small southerly extension of the San Andres Mountains, on the other. As you come out of the pass an enormous desert plain opens up in front of you and you can see the settlement of White Sands and the Missile Range beneath you. There is a viewpoint with some information boards on it telling you of the benefits the missile base has for the environment! We tried to drive through to see the observation post of the range but it was closed. However we were to return to the White Sands National Park later.