White Sands, Mountains, Desert and a Lake

After seeing the White Sands National Monument spread out before us from the distant launch sites, we had to stop there. "It's known for its dramatic landscape of rare white gypsum sand dunes." Andrew did get some dramatic photos!

Despite the fact it was quite a warm and sunny day, I was surprised by how cool the sand was on my bare feet.

My footprint in the sand.

We slowly made our way to the west coast, first stopping at Portal, Arizona, to visit a couple that Andrew had met a few years ago at an environmental conference. They have a beautiful home on the edge of the Chiricahua Mountains. Great views and incredibly peaceful and quiet. The area is also well known for many types of birds and the gentleman we spoke to at the park visitor centre said he'd seen over 100 species of birds so far this season. 

Our next stop was Tucson and a visit to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. We'd been there a few years ago and really enjoyed it. We again spent the better portion of a day there. 

Although this guy wasn't part of the exhibits, he was definitely amusing!

We finally made it to our next flying destination near San Bernardino, California. One morning, while waiting for the potential afternoon flying, we headed up to Lake Gregory and hiked a loop around the lake.

These guys came flying/swimming/running over to us as we approached. Obviously they are well fed by people!

They quickly lost interest once they figured out we didn't have anything for them.