Oliver Lee Memorial State Park is a New Mexico state park located at the foot of the Sacramento Mountains. The park is 4,400 feet above sea level. The Sacramento Mountains, which border the park and show in the background of the photo below, reach an elevation of 6,700 feet. This shot was taken from the park campground.

The park is named after Oliver Milton Lee who, was among many things a rancher, a US Marshal and a state legislator. He was also suspected of murdering a neighboring ranch hand in retaliation for the shooting death of his friend. Despite unresolved questions about the murder, the state of New Mexico named a state park after him.

Located in very sparsely occupied land, the park offers incredible views of spectacular sunsets and the Tularosa Basin.

New Mexico is known for very reasonably priced state park camping fees. Our campsite shown below, that included electricity, water and access to a dump site, was only $14 a night. We will definitely be back.

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Located 28 miles from our campsite in Oliver Lee is 275 square miles of white gypsum sand, commonly know as the White Sands National Park.

The sands are gypsum, left behind when sea water, which covered this area 250 million years ago, evaporated. Gypsum is rarely found as sand because it easily dissolves in water and is carried to the sea. Geologic activities formed the Tularosa Basin about 30 million years ago. Waters flowing from the surrounding mountains flowed into the basin. Because the basin had no outlet, the water and was trapped and evaporated leaving the gypsum behind. Years of freezing, thawing, and wind broke down the gypsum into tiny grains of sand.

Sledding on the sand dunes is permitted by the Park Service. The gift shop at the park sells waxed plastic snow discs. Sand is not as slippery as snow so it takes the right equipment and technique to get a good ride. We skipped the sledding because it’s too early in our trip to break any bones or suffer other injuries!

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No trip across America is complete without the discovery of a biggest or tallest something. This trip we found the largest pistachio in Alamogordo, NM.

Pistachio farming is delicious business in the west. We found this big nut in front of McGinn’s Pistachio Land, a second generation, family-run business. Located on US-54 just outside of Alamogordo, NM, McGinn’s offers over 10 different flavored pistachios that are available by mail order. We purchased and have been enjoying the roasted/salted and the Habanero Limon. For the record, the largest pistachio shown above was unsalted.

We ended this update with pistachios and plan to start the next with Petroglyphs. Thanks, as always, for checking in.