When I discovered that, as beautiful as it was, I couldn’t get a more meaningful experience at the Grand Canyon in the time I had, and without some planning, I decided to put it on my ‘revisit’ list and rush off to something that I could experience in one day.  In fact, I had to, it was only available for one day.  The Trinity Site, the location where the first atomic bomb was tested at 5:30am on July 16, 1945, is located on White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.  Because this is an active range, the site is only open to the public two days per year, the first days of April and October.  With a long day of driving and an overnight stay in Albuquerque, I was able to make it to the open day.

Back when I worked as a civilian engineer for the US Air Force, I spent most of one summer site managing at White Sands Missile Range as we tested an experimental radar there.  It was pretty much as I remembered it from that time, a lot of empty space with occasional buildings and facilities located down long straight roads, with mountains in the distance.

Getting on the site was fairly easy, although there were protestors at the gate and a moderate line of cars waiting to get in.  Security was a simple ID check, and I’d have to say that the crowd management skills of the Army guys who were running the show were outstanding.  They kept everyone moving and able to access the site with a very rational wait time.  The Trinity Site is about 25 miles inside the border of the range, and we all trucked along like obedient and patient little ants until we got there.  You can see the parking area at the Site in the picture below.

After parking, there was a quarter mile walk up a dirt road… and there it was.  The obelisk marks the spot where the 19 kiloton explosion took place that morning, the culmination of the work of the Manhattan Project, led by Dr J Robert Oppenheimer.  Although there were a number of people around, we all politely stood back for each other and took pictures of each other so that we could remember having been here.

To one side there was a bomb casing identical to the Fatman bomb used to end World War II, a reminder that the tests that took place at this site were more than theoretical, they led directly to the creation of the atomic bombs used on human beings at Heroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.  At first I found this rather confronting, but as I looked around at all the people, respectfully asking questions and learning the details of what happened there, and also teaching their children about the development of the bombs and how they were used, I became much more comfortable with it.  From the perspective that “those that forget the past are destined to repeat it,” we most definitely need reminders and educational experiences like this.

Hung on the fence that rings the site were historical photographs that I found quite interesting.  They showed the construction of the Trinity bomb and it’s transportation to the site.  They also showed the progression of the explosion, including the well developed shock wave at .025 seconds…

To the stereotypical mushroom cloud at 15 seconds..

And the blast site after 28 hours.  Most observers found that the brilliance of the light from the explosion, viewed through dark glasses, was more impressive than the shock wave and sound that arrived later.  One observer stated that “it looked like a giant magnesium flare.”  Many witnesses remember the sound bouncing off of the surrounding mountains making an echoing effect.  Others remember the heat, one stating that “the heat was like opening up an oven door, even at 10 miles.”  Another said that “suddenly, not only was there a bright light but where we were, 10 miles away, there was the heat of the sun on our faces.”  The shock wave broke windows 120 miles away and was felt by many at least 160 mile away.

Because this was still a classified project, but it was obvious to most people in New Mexico that something had happened, the official statement at the time was that a munitions storage area has accidentally exploded at Alamogordo Bombing Range.  The resulting crater was surprisingly small, only four feet deep and 240 feet in diameter, described by many witnesses as more of a depression than a distinct crater.  During the explosion, sand from the area was scooped up into the fireball, melted, aggregated, and molten glass fell like rain.  Collecting in depressions on the ground, the resulting green glass is known as Trinitite.  The average temperature inside the fireball was calculated to be 14,710 degrees Fahrenheit (8,155 degrees Celsius).  The Trinitite remains radioactive, and although it’s not allowed to search for any remaining on the ground, they had some there for inspection and I got a close up look.

In case you were wondering, there is still residual radiation in the area, but it’s relatively low, only about ten times the normal background radiation in the surrounding area.  A visit of an hour to the Trinity Site, which is about how long I stayed, is the equivalent to living for half a day anywhere else in the state, or about a quarter of what you’d receive on a coast to coast commercial flight.

After leaving Trinity, I travelled east and visited the Valley of Fires, a place of old lava beds where molten rock seeped from vents in the valley floor.  The dark area you see in the picture below is not a shadow, but the black lava fields.

There are a number of signs in the area that say something interesting… they tell visitors to please feel free to walk on the lave beds, the texture of the rock is quite interesting and worth exploring.  It’s actually quite nice to be given that freedom to explore, with the assurance that you’re not hurting the area.

There are also many plants and creatures living in the lava, and I saw a tarantula go strolling by and disappear before I could get my camera out.  There are plenty of snakes as well.  It’s a fascinating landscape, with very distinct borders, unlike the areas that surround it.

Continuing south to the bottom of  White Sands Missile Range, I came to the third and final of my hat trick of interesting sites for the day, the location that gives the range it’s name, White Sands National Monument.  As with the lava beds, the white dunes arise out of the surrounding landscape quite suddenly, and with almost no transition zone.  There are more plants living in the outer dunes than in the center.

The heart of the dunes is more free of plant life, and it’s like being in a snowscape, beautiful, pure, and crystalline.  I caught myself a number of times expecting the roads to be slippery, but that’s not ice, just sand.

By comparison with the roof of the FJ, and with the clouds in the sky, you can see the sand is just barely off white.  The dunes themselves are made of gypsum, dissolved from the surrounding mountains and collected here.  The dunes are still forming and shifting.  Aren’t all the blues and whites in this picture gorgeous?!?  The FJ is kind of photogenic anyway, but when you get it in a place like this… wow.

Although it’s not permitted to take sand away with you, and littering is of course forbidden, the rules for use of the dunes are like those at the Valley of Fires, remarkably relaxed.  I got out and walked around barefoot in the white sand for a while, which is remarkably cool because it reflects most of the sun’s heat.  The gift shop near the entrance rents sleds so that you can go sledding on the dunes, which some kids were doing.  There were plenty of cute young (and older) couples drawing love hearts with their initials in the sand too.  Personally, I just loved looking at the areas of unspoiled ripples, the exquisite and graceful flow of the sand and sky.

It was a lovely way to end a very interesting day, and I was tired enough to almost fall asleep lying on the sand for a while.  New Mexico is certainly more diverse than most visitors ever anticipate, and I’ve always enjoyed the time I’ve spent here.