WE ARE NOT ALONE?

Believe it or Not...

It’s a beautiful drive from Las Cruces to Roswell.  Coming over the hill into Roswell we spot a large silver object at the skyline.  Is it a flying saucer?   Nope, it’s just the dome of a silo sparkling in the late winter sunshine.  Suppressing our imaginations, we drive through town and stay at the Red Barn RV Park a couple of miles outside the city.  It’s a small intimate park with only a few spaces available for travelers.  We are fortunate to get the last open space.

Mention Roswell New Mexico and you think of Aliens but there is more to this town. It’s a farming, dairy and ranching community. The former Walker Air Force base here is now an industrial incubator for economic growth, and the International Air Center hosts hundreds of aircraft in various states of repair.  It is home to the International Law Enforcement Agency and the largest Mozzarella Cheese Processing plant in the world, (remember this next time you call Domino’s or Pizza Hut.) But we’re not here for the cheese… unless seeking out cheesy alien tchotskies qualifies.

UFO Museum

The “Roswell Incident” was unsuccessfully covered up for almost 30 years.  The UFO Museum here is dedicated to presenting all of the available information regarding the incident and other documented UFO phenomenon.  They have some pretty compelling evidence, but only strive to present the facts as known and let you decide what to believe. We spend a whole day exploring the museum and all of the Alien themed shops in downtown.

Bottomless Lake

About fourteen miles southeast of town are the bottomless lakes. (They are really about ninety feet deep but seemed bottomless to the cowboys with a short rope who named them.) This was New Mexico’s first state park comprised of nine small, deep lakes surrounded by cliffs. There are rumors that items lost in these lakes have shown up in Carlsbad Caverns some eighty miles to the south and also in the Gulf of Mexico. We spend the afternoon hiking and taking photos but we don’t try to prove the theory of traveling objects.

Carlsbad Caverns

After getting our “Alien Fix” we head south to Carlsbad.  The Caverns open at 8:30 AM and we are some of the first of the day to start hiking in from the natural entrance.  It takes all of the morning to explore the self-guided portions of the caverns.  After Lunch we take a ranger guided tour of the King’s palace.  These caverns are enormous and grand and should be on everyone’s bucket list.

Well that’s about it for New Mexico this time through.  Next, it’s Texas Y’all…