It was finally time to leave Carlsbad and move onto Roswell. Roswell is famous for an alleged UFO crash in 1947. Debris from the saucer and four dead aliens were reported to have been removed by the military. The military stated it was just a weather balloon that had crashed, but the International UFO Museum and Research Centre has documents from those involved that suggest it might not have been a weather balloon after all.

After touring the museum we drove west on US-70. The drive takes you along a very fertile oasis with fields, trees and cattle. The road becomes more mountainous and we climbed higher than 2000 meters above sea level. On the way down into the plains, the weather changed from sunshine to rain. Big clouds made the ride more interesting.

When the sun came out again we stopped at McGinn’s Pistachio Tree Ranch for pistachio and pecan samples and had a huge ice-cream. We also got to see how pistachios grow on trees!

Our next stop was White Sands National Monument. The weather was a combination of sun and cloud which made for amazing skies and provided numerous picture taking opportunities.

We would have liked to have spent the night in the park but only primitive camping with a tent was permitted. Sadly we had to move on but still had a final impression in the rear-view mirror.

We made it to Walmart in Las Cruses for the night and found a really quiet spot next to the auto and garden centre.