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Tuesday, February 5, 2008 - Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, Alamogordo NM

White Sands from the Second Bench, Dog Canyon Trail, Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, Alamogordo NM, February 2, 2008
White Sands from the Second Bench, Dog Canyon Trail, Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, Alamogordo, New Mexico, February 2, 2008

Walking from the Chihuahuan Desert into a grassland island

As I remember it, the second bench on the trail is in the second of the three distinct climates one walks through while ascending the trail from the trailhead at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park. First is the Chihuahuan Desert, then a grassland in the area of the second bench, and finally a woodland as one climbs farther up and out onto the mountain plateau above the canyon.

It's hard for me to judge distances out here but I'm going to guess this bench to be maybe 20 - 50 acres with Dog Canyon dropping off to the north and west and a steep mountain ridge rising to the south and east. The bench has a comforting, protected, feeling about it with your back to the wall as you gaze out over the Tularosa Basin and the White Sands dunes. What a great spot for an isolated mountain retreat.

Night camp

Site 8 - Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, Alamogordo NM

Sell Them Down the River

Brown had in his camp a fine-looking Negro, who said he had run away from his master in Platte County, Missouri, because the man was going to sell him and his wife to a dealer who would take them south to the Louisiana sugar plantations. The average Missouri Negro looked upon being sold south as one or two degrees worse than being sent straight to hell. This viewpoint was fostered by the masters, who always threatened, when things went wrong, to sell them down the river. ...

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