The Land of Enchantment

New Mexico definitely lives up to it’s state motto, “The Land of Enchantment.” Giant chile peppers and giant pistachio nuts, awesome motel signs, sledding down the whitest sand dunes, searching for aliens, and exploring giant caverns! We had such an awesome time!

Our first stop after a long drive from Tombstone, AZ was the Giant Chile Pepper motel in Las Cruces, NM. The next day, we had breakfast next-door at Pancake Alley (which I do NOT recommend, just admire their awesome sign from afar and save yourself the gross, rubbery eggs and oily hash browns) and toured some vintage neon signs before driving to Alamogordo to visit White Sands National Monument.

If you ever get a chance to go to White Sands National Monument, do yourself the favor and go! It is truly amazing, like visiting another planet!The visitor’s center is well-worth the visit. Be sure to watch the short video which explains how the dunes came into existence, how far they move each year, and all of the flora and fauna that exist inside the park. And you can purchase sleds in the gift shop next door.McGinn’s PistachioLand is just outside of Alamogordo and is home to the World’s Largest Pistachio!

The drive between Alamogordo and Roswell is beautiful! And Roswell is a much bigger city than I expected. On the way into town, we spotted what might be one of my favorite vintage signs ever:

And the next day we went in search of aliens at the UFO museum.I loved this cartoon in the museum – we were only a few days into the trip, but we must have already murdered a million bugs already.We also drove by the airport hanger where the alien bodies were allegedly taken prior to being transported to Area 51.

The next stop was Carlsbad Caverns. Again, if you are ever in New Mexico and can visit Carlsbad Caverns, please do so! It is awe inspiring. I knew the caverns were big, but I didn’t know exactly how big. Wow!The drive into Texas from Carlsbad Caverns was one of the most beautiful drives of our entire road trip. Gorgeous views and we had the road to ourselves most of the time.And on our way to Marfa, we got our first view of Prada Marfa at night. The mister sped right past it and I calmly said, “Turn around, that was it!”