We swift further West, away from Harvey and drove about 9+ hours to New Mexico from Dallas! One more State off our list! One of the main destinations that brought us to New Mexico is the White Sands National Monument. Just look at the phenomenon view that was captured during sunset time.. simply priceless.
Welcome to White Sands Monument, the visitor center. The gift shop at the visitor center has sled that you could buy used (based on availability) or new. They also offer "buy back" of the sled so basically it works like rental. We only needed for our time at the White Sands and return it once we were done for some money back.
Snow during the hottest month of the year, September? Wrong! It is purely sand, pure white sand!
Follow our footprints to have some fun sand sledding...
Getting ready for some action. Get set.. Go!!! Go!!! Go!!!
And repeat! Again and again.
The result. Boys are having too much fun!
The drive was long from Dallas, but it was so worth it. Can't complain. Both adult and kiddos had such a great time. We can't stress enough of how beautiful the sunset scenery is and how pure of the sand can be. Thanks to Harvey, we went during odd time of the year so the park wasn't crowded. We basically have the park to ourselves. One note to keep in mind, be sure to leave marks of your path as you could easily get lost and don't go too far in. You may not be able to get out.
Everyone should pay a visit just once in their lifetime to this place. We will be back!
McGinn's Pistachio Ranch
Not too far from the White Sands, there's a place called, McGinn's Pistachio Tree Ranch and they claimed to have the world's largest Pistachio statue.
They sell large variety flavor of pistachios. You can taste the sample and pick your liking. They also offer outdoor motorized tour to their orchards and vineyards.
Ever wonder why pistachio is so expensive? It takes about 5 years for a tree to bears fruits and harvest once a year between August and September. An interesting fact, a female tree only yields fruit once every other year. Also, within a couple of female trees, there will be a male tree nearby for pollination through wind.
Pistachio field (background) that has just been harvested for the year.
Carlsbad Natural Caverns
The only places that attracted us to Carlsbad is the famous Carlsbad Caverns National Park. There are three sections (routes) in the cavern and it could take 4 hours or more to finish all. There is an elevator which takes you down to about the mid point right before the 'big room' section. The walking distance at the big room itself takes about 1-2 hours. We recommend to use the elevator if you have small kids. The elevator to the underground sometimes closed for maintenance. Be sure to check their website if you wish to utilize the elevator.
In the cave, it gets chili inside so you may want to bring a light jacket just in case. Both of my boys did great inside. It was a great experience for us all. This is much bigger than the one we visited in San Antonio, TX.
There is a free bat viewing talk event that takes place in the evening where you could experience millions of bats leaving the cavern. The scenery view driving up and down from the cavern is pretty as well.
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