Travis's Daily Travel Journal -White Sands, NM

I went to White Sands National Monument. It has white sand! The sand is made of gypsum. The plants made pedestals. The yucca can get really tall. We went sledding down the hills and it was very fun. We made some big tracks from some steep hills. We went on a cool sunset hike with a ranger. We saw a well pit that had water only two feet down in the middle of the desert. Imagine that!

We also went to White Sands Missile Range. We saw a lot of missiles! My favorite missiles were the Patriot missile, the Howitzer, and the Athena missile. I did a mini launch simulation to see how the tracking system works. It had a Zeus missile. It works by using several tracking stations filming the rocket. Upon completion, people can figure out which frame was taken and see how fast the rocket went, where it’s been, and whether or not it missed a target. We saw a stolen V-2 rocket from Germany. Shh! Don’t tell Germany, oh wait…they already know. I believe all tourists passing through this area should visit the White Sands Missile Museum.