White Sands was unexpectedly cool. The main reason we chose to head to that area of New Mexico was to split up the drive to Arizona, but I'm glad we decided to stop here. We ended up walking the entire length of a mile long hike through the sands (Good job Amanda!), which took us through some really interesting and changing terrains/scenery:

I didn't know what to think before coming here... I kind of just thought it would be "Hey look.. white sand... cool...". And honestly, there was a bit of that... But the first trail was so much more diverse, and as a result was much more interesting to actually walk through.

Walking through the sand with no relief from the sun takes a lot of energy out of you, so we decided we would take it easy for the rest of the day. We stopped off at the next trail which was an elevated walkway above the sandy ground:

This was a very short trail, but gave us a chance to take a nice leisurely stroll.

The back end of the park is the pure white sand dunes you would come to expect at White Sands. There are a bunch of different stopping locations with different trails, but at that point we were both pretty tired from walking. Instead we opted to drive around the rest of the park and see everything from the comfort of our car :D

There were large dunes where you could see kids running up with sleds to come sliding down. Definitely a weird sight for anyone in Chicago used to seeing nearly the same sight with the slight change of having snow on the ground.

Driving along you would see large groups of people running around and causing footprints in the sand, but move just a little bit away and you would see nothing but smooth sand for miles in the distance. It really made you feel like you had been transported to the middle of a desert that no one had ever been before...

Despite my abbreviated explanation, we both really enjoyed White Sands.

Before we moved on to our next stop in Arizona I made sure to add a location to our list: The Very Large Array

You can be forgiven if the name itself isn't enough to cause excitement in your hearts. If you were previously unfamiliar with it you may have likely seen it in the movie 'Contact' with Jodie Foster. I made sure to watch the movie a few days before our visit so that I was very much excited to see it in person.

The 27 dish array is used as a radio astronomy observatory. Unlike traditional observatory's which are typically used at night to analyze the visible light from distant stars and galaxies, the VLA (Very Large Array) captures and analyzes radio signal's which allows it to work day and night as well as through clouds.

(Above is clearly not my picture, just trying to give you an idea of the scale of the compound)

Each antenna has a diameter of 82 feet, and can be moved on tracks that run many miles in all 3 directions. This allows the array to capture different types of information depending on the configuration that is being used at the time (How close each antenna is to the next).

Just to get here you have to go pretty far out of your way... It's intentionally located in a dead zone as it's extremely sensitive to any sort of interference. As you enter the visitor center you are reminded by plenty of signs to turn your cell phone and other devices on airplane mode so as to not disrupt the monitoring taking place.

The main attraction here is the self-guided tour that takes you right up to the foot of one of the antennae's.

How freakin' cool is that!

As you walk unchaperoned (ah the trust scientists are willing to give), there are stops which provide more information about how the array works as well as examples of some of the images that it has been able to capture. Even though it's super nerdy stuff, I feel like it would be interesting at some level for just about anybody.

The last bit of the tour lets you drive up to the maintenance shed where there is one of the antenna's being worked on (there are actually 28 dishes with just 27 being used at any given time). Its a truly massive building that was originally used to construct the entire array one by one.

Also, it gives you a better view of the actual tracks that are used to transport the antennas around. They use a special car that is able to lift the entire structure off the ground and move them around the length of the tracks. Super nutty stuff.

(Just sitting in our car staring at this huge structure).

As a nerd I am afraid I am not giving the VLA enough justice, but hopefully it's just enough to pique some interest if you are ever in the area. Definitely worth the extra driving and the entire tour is super cheap $6 each!