Many people don’t look out the window when they drive. I say that because there are times that I take for granted the scenery that I pass time after time, without a thought. As I drove along Interstate 25, South toward Las Cruses, I looked out at the wondrous land scape that surrounded me. Being from South Carolina, there is never a time where one can travel hours without seeing a hint of civilization. In the New Mexico desert, there are several places that you can drive for nearly an hour or longer without any sign of life. What you see is uninterrupted wilderness.
Typically on I-25, there are few clouds to be seen. Sunday, there was scattered rain and thunder showers. The sky also remained over cast until I drove close to Las Cruses—it may have been near Hatch, NM before the sky began to break its solid grey shade.
I stopped at a New Mexico Rest Area north of the town of Socorro. The rest area I had seen many times before as I drove north and was always curious of why it was built the way it was built.
Looking closer, particularly in these photos, it seems less like an odd New Mexico desert thing—but more like a scene from a beach. The boxes, I observed, are covered picnic table shelters. With ramps that lead to them.
But, why is there beach style architecture in the middle of the desert. Reading the posted sign, my eyes were opened to the sand dunes that were all around me.
The sign pointed out that the sand dunes were caused by the wind across the dry river bed of Rio Salado. The ground is constantly shifting by the wind, as they are shifting on the beach by the waves and the winds.
As I looked out across the dunes, I could see there shade and the exposed riverbed nearby. I could see how these dunes could be shifting, even in the very wind I was feeling. The experience makes me appreciate all the more the terrain and the landscape I pass as I travel through the empty deserts of the southwest.