New Mexico, a geeky road trip

What do Journey to the Center of the Earth, Transformers II, space, rocket building and little green men have to do with my road trip? Read more to find out!

It was decided that I needed to get away from Houston, my computer and all of my social media trappings. (read: cranky and stressed)

There’s not really much that interests me in the southern US. I’ve been to Louisiana several times, Atlanta too and I’m not fond of Florida. We set out for New Mexico because I’ve never been there, I’m a science fiction fan and it has Roswell. I slept for most of the way because it takes about 540 miles and about 9 hours to get out of Houston. I dislike superlong road trips through Texas because there just isn’t much to look at. I woke up around Kerrville because the landscape started to change. Houston is flat so seeing the rolling hills, buttes and mesas were new for me. I was a bit of a shutterbug as well. I took over 700 hundred pictures. (I won’t torture you with all of them.) I just couldn’t help myself because there were so many pretty things to see.

We went several places but stuck to 3 different main cites: Carlsbad, Alamogordo and Roswell– southern New Mexico. The total mileage was about 1,700 miles round-trip and we were on the road five days.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park (Official Site)
Wiki: Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Park entrance: $6
Ranger guided tour of The King’s Palace: $8
Wiki: Carlsbad, NM
City of Carlsbad Website
Population: 25,410
Elevation: 3,295 ft.

When I was told that I was going to see an underground cave, I’m sure you can imagine how unimpressed I was. I’ve never been in caverns before so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew that I would see stalagmites and stalactites but I didn’t expect the scale. The place is massive and phenomenal! I also found out that the caves of Carlsbad is the second largest cavern in the world.

The caverns are treated with a lot of care. There are metal walkways with rails along the tours so that tourist won’t fall and/or disturb the natural beauty of the caves. There are also infohubs that give you names of particular formations and go into great detail about the major spots in the caves. If you are daring enough, you can go hiking into uncharted parts of the cave with a guide. Since I still felt a little under the weather, we went on The King’s Palace tour lead by a park ranger. She showed us all sorts of limestone formations, stalactites that look like curtains, straws and curly loops. We also went on a self- guided tour of The Big Room. Both tours are about a mile and a half long and take less than two hours to complete each. The tour turned geeky when the ranger told us that the original 1959 Journey to the Center of the Earth was filmed in the The King’s Palace.
Journey to the Center of the Earth trailer.

The journey to get to the caves was equally beautiful. I took many pictures of the surrounding mountains and plant life.

Lincoln National Forest (Official Site)
Wiki: Lincoln National Forest
Driving along US-82.
Wiki: Alamogordo, NM
City of Alamogordo Website
Population: 53,757
Elevation: 4,336 ft.

Though we only drove through the park via US-82, the Lincoln National Forest had to be my favorite part of the trip. Houston is all flat and quite frankly, the view of the city can be dull. I am in love with mountains. I eventually plan on moving somewhere with mountains but I haven’t worked that out yet.

The mountains on US-82 range from desert-like with spots of vegetation, to black, to red clay and some were totally covered in trees (my favorite). The air was crisp and there were simple yet adorable farms as far as the eye could see. I want to go back here just to rent a cabin for a weekend so that I can see more of the forest. I fell in love with this place.

From Wikipedia:
The Lincoln National Forest is a protected national forest in the State of New Mexico in the southwestern United States. It was established in 1902 and covers 1,103,828 acres (1,724.73 sq mi, or 4,467.03 km²). ^[1] It was named in honor of Abraham Lincoln, who was 16th president of the United States and is the birthplace of Smokey Bear, the living symbol of the campaign to prevent forest fires.^[2] Forest headquarters are in Alamogordo, New Mexico. There are local ranger district offices in Carlsbad, Cloudcroft, and Ruidoso.^[3]

Elevations range between 4,000 to 11,500 feet (1,219 to 3,505 meters) and pass through five different life zones from Chihuahuan Desert to subalpine forest. Vegetation ranges from rare cacti in the lower elevations to Engelmann Spruce in the higher.

White Sands National Monument (Official Site)
Wiki: White Sands National Monument
Park entrance: $3 (cash only)
Population: 53,757
Elevation: 4,336 ft.

White Sands has to be my second favorite part of the trip. Not only do you get to drive though the sands but you get to get out and climb them. The view from the tops of the dunes were spectacular not only because of the dunes but the mountains in the far distance. The dunes start out with huge spots of vegetation then get to a point were they are all white with no plants at all. It totally looked like Arrakis, Tatooine or Abydos. Parts of Transformers II: Revenge of the Fallen was filmed at White Sands!

From Wikipedia:
The White Sands National Monument is a U.S. National Monument located about 25 km (15 miles) southwest of Alamogordo in western Otero County and Dona Ana County in the state of New Mexico, at an elevation of 4235 feet (1291 m). The area is in the mountain-ringed Tularosa Basin valley area and comprises the southern part of a 710-km² (275-mi²) field of white sand dunes composed of gypsum crystals.

New Mexico Museum of Space History (Official Site)
Wiki: New Mexico Museum of Space History
Museum entrance: $6
IMAX movie admission: $6
Wiki: Alamogordo, NM
City of Alamogordo Website
Population: 53,757
Elevation: 4,336 ft.

My first impression of the New Mexico Museum of Space History (NMMSH) is that it is better than Space Center Houston. It’s more of what I wanted out of NASA in Houston. Space Center Houston is over-crowded and is pretty much an indoor theme park for children. NMMSH has actual artifacts and education about what is on display. You aren’t distracted by kids running around yelling at the top of their lungs. On the day we went, Sept. 11, we had the whole place to ourselves. NMMSH is also home to a SpaceShipOne replica but it wasn’t there on the day we went.

There is also a domed IMAX theater on site. The theater was named after Clyde W. Tombaugh, New Mexico resident and discoverer of Pluto. [Wiki] We went to see Destiny In Space which was narrated by Leonard Nimoy. The movie picture was very crisp and the domed theater made the movie look fresh and unique.

Between Alamogordo and Mescalero, there was a town called Tularosa. It had a very heavy southwestern theme and even had mission-styled churches. We didn’t stop to get pictures because we wanted to get to the casino and Roswell before dark. If I ever go back, I will be sure to visit this town. It had lots of charm and is very picturesque.

Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort and Casino (Official Site)
Wiki: Mescalero, NM
Casino entrance: Free
City of Mescalero Website
Population: 1,233
Elevation: 6,611 ft.

I was hesitant about going to the casino. The closer we got, I feared that the casino would be a hole-in-the-wall with creepy low-lives. When I saw the sign to the entrance, it eased my fears. It looked really nice and drew me in. As we went further into the site, I realized that this was a hidden-away, plush resort! I was a little disappointed that we didn’t know about the place before-hand because I would have LOVED to stayed overnight! The only disappointment with Inn of the Mountain Gods is that you can’t drink on the casino floor like in Las Vegas. We played some slots and video poker. We lost $40 but it was fun.

From http://www.mescaleronewmexico.com:
The Mescalero Apache Reservation is located in Southeastern New Mexico between Tularosa and Ruidoso off U.S. 70. The Mescalero tribe is currently famous for its Inn of the Mountain Gods’ resort, which offers high altitude golf, fishing, boating, restaurants and gaming.

The Mescalero Apache Tribe was established by Executive Order of President Ulysses S. Grant on May 27, 1873. There are three sub bands that comprise the Tribe: the Mescalero Apache, the Chiricahua Apache, and the Lipan Apache.

Prior to the reservation period, the Mescalero people were nomadic hunters and gathers and roamed the Southwest. They were experts in guerrilla warfare and highly skilled horsemen. The women were known for their ability to find and prepare food from many different plant sources.

Between Mescalero and Roswell, there is a vast expanse of land with what it seemed a 100-mile view. It was cloudy and starting to rain so we got to see a very stunning, panoramic lighting storm on the drive into Roswell. The lightning was pink, blue, yellow and white. Not only did you get your standard vertical lightning strikes but there were also horizontal lightning that practically spanned the entire sky. This was also one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Roswell Visitor Center (Official Site)
Roswell Museum & Art Center (Official Site)
Museum entrance: Free but bring cash to donate.
Wiki: Roswell, NM
City of Roswell Website
Population: 45,293
Elevation: 3,573 ft.

The only reason that I spotted the Roswell Visitor Center is because it had a R2-D2 US Postal Service mail box in front of it. If you are going to draw sci-fi fans in, this is the way to do it! Upon entrance there was alien stuff everywhere! We were greeted by a nice, perky and helpful lady who marked on a map where all of the alien shops were. The City of Roswell provides visitors with a well designed Roswell brochure, Roswell pen and silver evidence bag to put all of your maps and other brochures in. She even told us about a Dragonfly Festival and the Roswell Museum & Art Center. If you want to buy any of the awesome t-shirts that they have for sell, bring cash.

I wanted to go to the Dragonfly Festival in theory but I also remembered that dragonflies are bugs and I’m not a bug person. Hell, I don’t even like ladybugs or butterflies.

The Roswell Museum & Art Center, which is right across the parking lot from the Visitor’s Center, houses a re-creation of Robert H. Goddard’s workshop!!! It’s official title of the exhibit is the Robert H. Goddard Collection of Liquid-Propellant Rocketry. This was a total and pleasant surprise because I didn’t know Roswell had such an exhibit.

If you do anything creative, looking at anyone’s workspace is always revealing and exciting. There were all types of tools, filing cabinets, lighting and of course rockets and rocket materials. This is a free museum but bring cash to donate. Note: The pictures are extremely grainy because the museum wouldn’t let me use a flash.

International UFO Museum and Research Center (Official Site)
Museum entrance: $5

The UFO Museum was exactly as I expected it to be. It doesn’t have the biggest budget but it does it’s best to be informative and fun. I took pictures of everything but I mainly wanted to to see the “Alien Autopsy” exhibit. It was totally kitschy and fake but everyone knows that going in. It amused me that the props were donated from the set of Roswell: The U.F.O. Cover-Up TV movie with Kyle MacLachlan and Martin Sheen.

Roswell is also home to the annual UFO festival in July. See http://www.roswellufofestival.com/ for more information.

Farley’s
1315 N Main St, Roswell, NM 88201; (505) 627-1100
The UFO themed restaurant Crash Down Diner from the Roswell TV show is permanently closed so the next best thing is Farley’s. Though there are two huge silver spaceships hanging from the ceiling, plenty of classic sci-fi posters and restrooms that say “Science Fiction” on it, this restaurant doesn’t set out to be a sci-fi themed. It’s sci-fi enough to be clever but not turn off regular people. The atmosphere is comfortable. It’s an American restaurant; the food is decent enough and inexpensive. Two meals and 3 alcoholic beverages cost around $25! …and the drinks were strong.

Alien Zone Souvenir Shop and Area 51 Photo Prop House
216 N. Main St., Roswell, NM; (505) 627-6982
Prop House entrance: $3

The Area 51 Photo Prop House was my favorite part of Roswell. The owner of Alien Zone (and Cosmic Jukebox?) set up a elaborate room next door to the shop with about 10 different mini-sets. It’s like a haunted house with aliens that don’t jump out at you. Instead, you stop, pose and take pictures with the aliens. It costs $3 to get in and looks a little seedy at first but it’s well worth it. You HAVE to visit and take pictures in it!

I am astonished that Roswell hasn’t gotten a clue and opened an alien theme park. I’m not sure what happened with the plans for the Alien Apex Resort & Theme Park dreamed up by Bryan Temmer but I am disappointed that they haven’t gotten it together yet.

Let your friends and family know you had a wacky old time by visiting the best store for postcards, Planet Roswell on 204 N. Main St., Roswell, NM; (575) 627-3300. There are more alien themed souvenir shops that are all within two blocks of the UFO Museum. All of the stores are unique and full of fun things.

In conclusion, New Mexico was a complete surprise to me. I expected everything to be a hot, red clay desert. It was FAR from that. Sure there were desert parts but there were also very green parts, rocky parts, mountains, pastures, hills, valleys and more. Even though it rained everyday, I enjoyed the weather. In Houston, we practically have 100% humidity year-round so it was a relief to breathe dry air. If I could drop everything today, I’d love to live in the mountains of Lincoln National Forest. I totally fell in love with Alamogordo as well. I wish I would have spent the bulk of my time there. Maybe next time.

For more information about New Mexico, visit http://www.newmexico.org/.