New Mexico has two national parks and with both of them about the same distance from Albuquerque, we had to choose only one to visit while we were there. White Sands won, of course! We got up super early on Sunday morning and made the three hour drive there, making it early enough to beat most of the crowds and so that it was not too hot to enjoy. We hiked a few different trails and took in all the beauty, checking another national park off of our list.
When we moved Elizabeth to New Mexico, we were there for Memorial Day weekend and we wanted to make sure that we took time to take in some of the national monuments in the area. On Saturday, we spent time at Petroglyphs National Monument and El Morro National Monument. In hindsight, we should have gone to El Morro in the morning because we enjoyed it so much and would have loved to have spent more time there.
Our last morning in Alaska, the girls and I took a flight seeing trip over Denali. We were originally supposed to take a flight out of Talkeetna and land on a glacier inside the park but the weather did not cooperate so we scratched that trip. Lee opted out (not a fan of small planes) but the girls and I had a remarkable experience. Our flight reached altitude of 12,000 feet and the pilot told us that our flight was among the top five he'd ever done - there was visibility as far as the eye could see and both peaks were remarkably clear. It was the experience of a lifetime and I was so glad that we had the opportunity to see the majesty of Denali up close and so clearly.
In addition to the sled dogs, we saw so many amazing animals while we were in Denali, including moose, bears, caribou and Dall sheep.
