Day 56 - Roswell and White Sands National Monument, NM

We left the mountains at 7am and headed towards a desert of sand dunes: we were due to spend the night backcountry camping on the white sand dunes at White Sands National Monument and there were only 10 sites available, all FCFS. We didn't want to be complacent again and miss out on such a good opportunity to camp somewhere really unique so we headed off as quickly as we could.

Before reaching White Sands, we wanted to make a quick detour to the alien capital of the world, Roswell.

The moment we entered New Mexico, the aliens started to pop up all over the place, in gas stations, loan companies, in fields, in towns and even on sushi adverts. There were so many aliens everywhere, I don't know why people are still hunting for them, they just need to head to New Mexico!

A couple of people had recommended to us that we don't spend too much time in Roswell as there wasn't a huge amount to do unless you're alien obsessed. They were right! We ended up spending about an hour and a half walking along Main Street and then around the quirky Alien Cafe.

Main Street is trying to show off Roswells frontier history and its current dairy business with lots of aliens at every opportunity. The aliens take over, to the point where it becomes so silly it is funny (and maybe a little annoying for the locals!).

The Alien Cafe and Area 51 attraction take the alien theme to the next level! You walk around different scenes with aliens, some of them aligned to myths and stories about them landing on Earth and what goes on in Area 51, and some that are just plain weird! My favourite was the alien on a toilet. Lee couldn't help himself, he dropped his pants and joined him! It was a lot of fun and I don't think there is any attraction like this in the World!

We left Rosewell and headed towards White Sands National Monument via the Billy the Kid highway and through Mescalero Apache Tribal Lands. The landscape changed from the desert we had become used to, to a green and lush valley floor filled with farms, vineyards and stables.

White Sands is magical! We arrived just after lunch and managed to get one the 10 backcountry campsites. We chose campsite 10 as the park ranger told us that it had great views of the sunset and it was only 1/2 mile hike. At over 100F and with only the water you can carry being available within the park, we were up for the shortest hike possible! The furthest campsite was a mile away.

Before hiking out and pitching, we headed to the local town to have a good lunch as the campsite is really primitive, there was no way to cook unless someone wanted to carry the stove. You also had to pack everything out with you again as nothing could be left on the dunes as they are constantly moving. The only thing you could leave is a little wee wee but you had to dig a hole for it to go into.

We ate at Buffalo Wild Wings and of course had wings! This was a great sports bar with an outside area containing lots of TVs so we could catch up on the World Cup.

We took the basics on our hike to the campsite; the tent, the tent carpet (seriously, this has become essential, more esential than the sleeping bags at times!), the sleeping bags, a new blanket we bought to throw over the tent for shade and to sit on in the evenings, sun cream, hats, some snacks and lots and lots of drinks. The park rangers recommend a gallon of water per person per day which is a lot to carry when you're hiking up sand dunes!

There was no easy path through the dunes; with our backpacks on, we were going up the side of dunes and then down the back of them. It was hard work!

Finding the campsite wasn't easy in a sea of white sand, even with markers! When we finally found our site and the panic that we would be lost in the sand dunes forever faded, we realised how beautiful and remote this place is. It is like nothing either of us have ever experienced before and will probably never experience again.

We spent the evening playing in the sand like kids, watching the sun set and then star gazing. Although there were 9 other campers on the sands, they were so far away you wouldn't know they were there. We felt alone and it was so quiet, our ears starting to ring with the lack of noise.

Here is a video of our White Sands experience: