New Mexico

If you haven't figured it out by now I am spending the month of August in New Mexico. My home base is the Alamogordo area with side trips to the towns or attractions in the areas surrounding Alamogordo. Why a month? My daughter and son-in-law are stationed at Holloman AFB and I wanted to hang out with them for a while. Afterall, she is my baby!
New Mexico is the 47th State in the U.S. as of January 6, 1912. It is one of the states in southwest U.S. and is considered one of the Mountain States. The population of New Mexico is 2,059,179. It is the 6th most sparesely inhabited U.S. State with a population density of 16 per square mile. The area of New Mexico is 121,412 square miles. The landscape ranges from wide red colored deserts to broken mesas to high snow capped mountain peaks. The average rainfall is 13.9 inches a year and the average temps range from 40 - 65 degrees in the winter and 70 - 100+ degrees in the summer.
Native Americans have lived in New Mexico for centuries. It has also been a part of "New Spain", Mexico, and a U.S. Territory before becoming a state. Due to this heritage New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanics and the third highest in Native Americans.
Today, Tim and I are headed to Roswell, NM. It is about a 3 hour drive from Alamogordo. It was just a ranching town until the 1947 Roswell UFO incident. Here we go to do some extraterrestrial watching!