Route 66 Day 10: White Sands

In the Southern New Mexico desert lies a 273-mile stretch of perfectly white gypsum sand dunes called White Sands National Monument.

We bought a sled and hiked to the tallest and steepest dune we could find. Occasionally, we heard explosions not too far off in the distance. Apparently, the White Sands Missile Range is still active. After an afternoon of sledding, laying in the sun, and tossing the football around, we got back on the road and headed north to rejoin Route 66.  

A Backpacker's Life List by Ryan Grayson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.   

Route 66 Day 9: Carlsbad Caverns

On the ninth day we hiked over 750 feet underground into Carlsbad Caverns. This was the first of several national parks on our agenda.

As we descended into the cavern, Liv and I debated whether or not this would be a good place to wait out the eventual Zombie Apocalypse. I was obviously on the pro side, but Liv won the debate by pointing out that if we were being chased by zombies the last place she would want to go is some scary-ass dark hole in the ground. I had no counter-argument.

That being said, we loved Carlsbad Caverns. I've seen caves and caverns before, but what makes Carlsbad in itself worthy of the drive from Indiana is its immensity. The end of our hike down took us into the limestone chamber they call the "Big Room". Aptly named since it is the largest room in the cavern at 8.2 acres (or nearly 4,000 feet long, 625 feet wide, and 255 feet high at the highest point.)

  

A Backpacker's Life List by Ryan Grayson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.   

Route 66 Day 8: Desert Road

A few miles from Carlsbad, we turned onto a quiet desert road to car camp for the night. I drove slowly over the rough dirt road next to a natural gas pipeline until we were high above the highway and, more or less, out of sight. It was a night of tossing a football on parched cactus-laden grounds, sitting on camp chairs with our heads turned to the stars while sipping cold beers from a cooler, and watching the sunset turn a desolate brown landscape into one filled with vivid colors.

Route 66 Day 8: Roswell

We entered New Mexico and decided to get off Route 66 for a couple days and drive south to Carlsbad Caverns. Roswell was on the way, so we stopped. I'm not sure why I wanted to see it, since I find no reasons to believe space aliens crashed there, but that doesn't keep the town from profiting on it. Even the local McDonalds has a big flying saucer sticking out the sides. I'm not sure what I expected, but I discovered that Roswell is a lot like other tourist attraction towns, only without an attraction.

Route 66 Day 7: Cadillac Ranch

The weather turned gloomy and rainy all day. The one highlight was spotting Cadillac Ranch, a row of 10 Cadillacs buried nose first in the ground just passed Amarillo, Texas on Route 66. The cars are coated in thick layers of spray paint from years of passers by contributing to the art project. Liv found a half empty can of yellow spray paint on the ground and tag a car with "Webos to Cali". Webos being the word we coined for Westbound 66ers.