The Other White Sands

2025-09-22
White Sands, NM and TX

Plan Continuation Bias is where you stick with your original plan despite new information that you receive. It has led to some pretty big disasters. I had to fight with that yesterday, and again today (although any resulting disasters would be small). The original plan was to visit White Sands Missile Range Museum which is on the base. The roads near the entrance are under construction, and where one road was now a big hole I liked to think that it was caused by an errant missile, ala Wile E. Coyote. However, the engineer in me sucked the fun out of it by noting that it was the lowest point on the road and likely needed a culvert for drainage.

I got to the base and parked at the visitor processing center. I was processed, and walked maybe a quarter mile through the gates to the museum. The actual museum is pretty small, and a third or so of it is dedicated to the Apache Wars and Geronimo. The rest covered some of the history of missile systems, as well as some of the other projects that happen at the base. For example, they tested high energy lasers as part of Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" defense plan. Spoiler alert: they found that while it worked, it was not efficient or sufficiently effective.

An original radio receiver telemetry station used for missiles and later nuclear bomb testing

There was also a yard full of missiles. I was told on the way in that I could only photograph in one direction, so I heeded that request. The signs for most of the exhibits were poor or missing, but inside (on a pristine sign) they said they were working on replacements, and that the New Mexico sun destroyed vinyl while the three months of strong winds in the spring destroyed plastic signs and eroded the paint off the missiles.

A model of the Fat Man nuclear bomb casing. It's the second and last nuclear weapon to have been used in war.

The one missile that was immune to these environmental issues was the V2 rocket which is in its own building. After WW2 the Americans didn't find a working V2 (the Germans shot them all) but they picked up loads of parts and personnel familiar with them and sent them all to White Sands where they used the V2's they were able to assemble to push the US towards space. This is the first rocket in a succession of rockets that culminated in the Apollo program. It's another super-cool piece of history for the engineer in your life...

The unstoppable and wildly inaccurate V2. Since it couldn't be shot down, the safest thing to do was stand where it was "aimed." Out of 1600 V1's and V2's aimed at Antwerp, less that 30% hit the city at all and almost none hit the port that was the target.

The next stop was supposed to be the Smokey Bear Historical Park. It's closed on Mondays, so that's left for another trip. It isn't something you should go out of your way for, but it was on my way so I was on board for a visit until Google told me not to bother.

At this point I have decided that my ankle didn't get better in a few days so it's time to cut this trip short and give it a few weeks to heal. I had a few more weeks of things planned, but they were primarily hikes and, while I can walk with a limp on smooth ground, I don't think I should be walking on uneven, rocky ground. My decision meant that I should head east today, but my Plan Continuation Bias forced me one hour west to visit the missiles. After leaving the base on foot, I drove across New Mexico and part of the Texas Panhandle to end up in Amarillo. The east side of Amarillo specifically; I did learn from my mistakes heading west; cross the city in the evening so you're not in morning traffic.

Hiking Distance: 0.5 miles