White Sands and Valley of Fires

We went straight from Alamogordo to White Sands. It was a fascinating place. It was full of sand but not the one I am used to. It is actually made up of gypsum instead of silica, like the sand found in Galveston. The term sand refers to particle size and not composition. We had a great time and we got an Awesome group picture. Jack sacrificed himself by not being in the picture so he could be the photographer. THANKS JACK!





On our way to the Valley of Fires, we started seeing some evidence of the 1,000 year or so old volcanic lava flow. Lots of black sections in the landscape due to the pahoehoe lava flow. We were to walk through the Malpais nature trail but a storm hit us, carrying hail even.

The sound you hear is the hail striking the bus.


But we got to see some of the landscape and collected a few samples of lava rock :-)