Day trip to Alamogordo, NM

We decided to drive over the mountain to see the White Sands Monument.  We picked the most direct route, but it's was a 2 lane state road.  It's a truck route, but only for trucks under 65' total.  Since I was only in the pickup truck I wasn't worried, but did want to evaluate whether I could pull the RV trailer over on this road.  We are camped at around 3500', and the road would take us to 9000' and them back to 4500' in Alamogordo.

First observation is don't expect bathrooms on any highway in NM that isn't an Interstate.  After about 1.5 hours we found a small roadside stand with restrooms, a petting zoo, canned everything homemade and candy and nuts.  The road got curvy after that stop and it was a gradual rise up to Cloudcroft at 9000'.  It was 20 degrees cooler there than back at our camp. The photo above is from a picnic area in Cloudcroft looking toward Alamogordo, NM with the White Sands Missile Range in the distance.  I could tell I was at 9000', I was light headed, the same as I got at Pike's Peak years ago.  Very uncomfortable feeling when you have to drive.  I posted a bunch of photos on Flickr.com  Day in Alamogordo

After lunch at Cowboy's Steakhouse which was recommended to us, we went to the White Sands Monument.  They have a small museum with a theater and we watch an informational video on how the white sand area was formed and keeps expanding.  Then we took the 16 mile drive, some of it on the sand roads.  People were sliding down the dunes with plastic saucers or just hiking on them.  We mostly did the slow roll though the park stopping for photos.

Since the drive over was 2.5 hours we decided to head back by a different route which was all 4 lane. but still when up to 7500' and back to 3500' and took an hour longer.  I still need to decide which way to leave the area towing the RV.  We might wait to do more stuff in Alamogordo after we leave Artesia and just camp there, or move on.  It depends on how much we can do in day trips over the next week.

We did see a roadside pistachio store where they grow them.  Picked up a bag or two. There was a giant nut in the parking lot.