Done in Durango

Yesterday was our last in Durango. Even though we were there almost 3 days the time went by very quickly. We really enjoyed our time in Durango and our time in Colorado in general. We tried to make sure we got on the road early since we had over 500 miles to cover with a stop in White Sands sandwiched in the middle of it.

The drive from Durango to White Sands was through a very, very remote area of New Mexico. It was so remote that we literally were looking for a place to eat lunch for over two and a half hours. There were just no towns at all during that time period.

As we drove towards south there were a lot of rain clouds overhead and we drove through several periods of rain. I was worried that it could be raining at White Sands. Luckily the skies at White Sands were partly cloudy but not dropping any precipitation.

We went in and bought our sled which they buy back after you are done. There were two types of sleds available, one for 16 bucks and one for 18. We opted for the cheaper model but I think we would have been better served spending the extra two dollars. The saucer we got seemed to be made with thinner, shittier plastic.

Last year when we visited the park they had a huge amount of it closed off because of flooding associated with monsoon season. Since we were back at almost the exact same time of year I was worried that again we would be restricted to only the front section of the park. Surprisingly that was not the case, we had full access to everything.

I drove deep into the dunes, the further back you go the bigger and less cluttered by vegetation the dunes become.   We parked in an unoccupied area and stepped out into the pure beauty of nature that White Sands provides.

We first tried a nearby hill that had a lot of footprints but that wasn’t all that tall or steep. The sled hardly moved down the hill, we obviously needed to find more incline. We walked over a couple dunes and spotted what looked like a better spot a couple hundred yards away.

We bought the block of wax along with the sled to hopefully decrease the drag coefficient on the bottom of the saucer. I was doing my best to completely cover the bottom as we walked along. Despite an air temperature of just under 80 degrees, when the sun poked out the heat intensified very quickly thanks to the sun and heat bouncing off the bright white gypsum sand.

Cindy was the first to do a test run down the bigger hill. It was a much better result although it looked slower than what we were able to do last year. I attributed it to the lower quality sled. I tried to help matters by reapplying wax after nearly every trip down the dune.

My early rides were not good. As I was going down the dune the front end would dig into the sand due to my trying to keep my feet awkwardly perched in the front of the saucer. It resulted in poor speed and a saucer full of sand at the bottom. Later I started simply holding my legs up in the air as I went down the hill. This resulted in much better results, almost too good, as hitting the bottom of the dune resulted in a serious jolt due to speed. I started using my size 13’s as brakes as I approached the bottom of the dunes later on.

Cindy and I did a number of dune sledding trips. It was a decent workout since each ride required trudging up the steep hills of powdery gypsum sand. Since we were only one day removed from our dangerous hike/climb up Smelter Mountain, climbing the dunes felt even more difficult. In between rides we were taking pictures of the absolutely gorgeous scenery. Even though this was my fourth or fifth time at White Sands I am never less impressed by just how awesome of a place it is.

I then pulled out my Phantom, White Sands was the primary reason I wanted to bring it along. Getting aerial footage of the dunes seemed like it would be really, really cool. Getting the copter in the air wasn’t difficult but the Phantom was working very hard to maintain a steady hover against the consistent wind in that part of the park. I got some awesome footage including Cindy sledding down some other hills. By the end of the second flight we only had an hour to go before the visitor center closed so we packed up our gear and turned in our sled while getting a couple cool souvenirs before pulling out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xxIMTIKt-w&feature=youtu.be

We only had slightly less than 100 miles left to get to El Paso. We stayed at a La Quinta that had the exact same older style layout as where we stayed in Colorado Springs. Cindy wasn’t thrilled with staying there because of the outside door layout and the very affordable room rate of $55 a night. The place actually wasn’t bad at all except for one rather glaring issue, a large damp spot on the carpet. Cindy threw a towel over it after stepping in it.

It was pretty late at this point so we didn’t feel like going out anywhere to eat. Instead, we just ordered a small pizza from a place the desk clerk recommended. It was pretty good and quick. We watched a good portion of Hall Pass on TBS before falling asleep. It was actually pretty funny, I’d give it a B+.

This morning we had a 6AM alarm which allowed us to eat and get back on the road by 7. Today is our other monster drive of the trip of roughly 835 miles. The next 3 days will be all about gobbling up miles as fast as possible, home is calling our names.