Cloudcroft | Rachel Murphree Watercolors

We left El Paso at 6:20 AM with the top down, enjoying the morning coolness of the desert. We came over Mt. Franklin to see this gorgeous view of the sun just coming up. And as we went down the mountain, it got better and better!

And that was the start of a whirlwind day that included breakfast in Alamogordo, up the mountain to Cloudcroft NM and little hikes to see this vista of White Sands National Monument in the Tularosa Basin below:

And then on to Sunspot, one of the National Solar Observatory locations in the US. Neat little museum, informative, if sometimes over my head, not being a physicist. When the girls get older, we’ll visit again with them. Outside the museum were neat art pieces that I was drawn to. The Armilary sphere (read about it)

and a public art piece by Pedro Romero Sedeño.

The day then turned really rainy and blowy, so it was top down then top up several times on our trip over to Ruidoso. Fun roads to drive with the miata. Had coffee at Sacred Grounds and enjoyed a viewing of the original La Cage aux Folles in their media room before we headed back. I did a bunch of work on my knitted shawlette while watching, about 98% done! Drove by this cool sculpture of a roadrunner beside the road in Alamogordo. Driving past White Sands I took some more shots from the car. See the sand dunes in the foreground.