Day 20: White Sands and Brantley Lake State Park

In the morning I was giving Kiddo a bath and I wasn't sure where our hosts were - whether they were both out or possibly behind the closed bedroom door. My phone rang, and it was our hosts - their car had broken down and they were wondering if I could pick them up (they were close enough to walk, but it's hot in New Mexico and he did have work coming up that morning). So we helped them out with that before heading out in the morning.

Carlsbad Caverns is in southeast New Mexico, and the way from Las Cruces conveniently goes by White Sands National Monument. First, we had to stop at a border checkpoint. Hey, good job putting that 80 miles from the border, guys. And that 80 miles totally includes Las Cruces, an actual city. Also, good job not checking my car or license because I'm a white guy with a white kid. I totally had an illegal immigrant in my trunk that I took into White Sands with me. I mean shit, next big trip I should totally do a side job of running drugs. I could probably make good money that way. 

So hey, White Sands! Let me tell you about it. It's got sand that is... white! No really.

I wouldn't plan a cross-country trip around it, but if it's somewhat on the way (aka your trip involves both Carlsbad Caverns and something west of it), it's totally worth a stop. It's cool. You drive in and play on white sand dunes. I never wear sunglasses... this was a rare occasion in which I wanted them. I think they rent things for you to slide down the dunes like it's snow. We probably should have done that but didn't.

Just like at the beach you have to shake the sand out of your shoes. Even though we did that before leaving the park, we still left a bit of white sand at future stops when we took our shoes off.

So we kept driving east, and we didn't make it to the Carlsbad area in time to get into the cave in the evening - I had considered going in both the evening and the next morning. That's definitely something that works for Junior Ranger books, picking them up in the evening then doing the bulk of the park visit the next day. However, our campground was about an hour away from the park, so we weren't going to do that just for the book. 

We camped at Brantley Lake State Park. We paid $8 to use the primitive campground (one of two campgrounds we paid for). The campground is aptly named ("Rocky Bay"), so I wasn't exactly kind to the stakes. But it also means it was easy to access the lake. After we set up the tent, we changed to bathing suits and went down to the water to try swimming. You'd think that July in New Mexico would be hot, but the storm front changed that. It wasn't too hot, and the wind made swimming too chilly for me. We mostly just sat on the first rocks in the water while sunset approached.

We had encountered some desert rain on the way to Las Cruces the day before, and a downpour that same night in the city. Storms were brewing all day and I was worried about torrential rain while we were in the tent. After we got back to the tent lightning started; we sat on the trunk and watched it a bit before bed.