Here is my story about Sunspot New Mexico.
Back in August,1992 I was doing work for NASA evaluating the gypsum runways for the Space Shuttle at the White Sand Space Harbor (it was actually named that by congressional decree) located on the southern portion of the White Sand Missile Range in New Mexico. The facility was located well into the desert and about 30 miles from Holloman AFB. Work was complicated because of the distance to the site and also because work schedule was reduced due to testing at the range and we would be told on short notice that the next day we would not have access until noon because there was testing at the range that morning (testing Patriot Missiles at that time) so, what should have taken 3 or 4 days, was schedule as a two week project. Add to that the first crash of the F117 Stealth fighter near Alamogordo shortly after we started the program that increased security and shut down everything for a couple of days.
That weekend, the site manager for Lockheed Martin, the firm that provided the support for the facility and a good friend, was able to secure motorcycles for myself and the other member of the team that happened to be a Military Intelligence Geologist and at the time Science advisor to the astronauts.
That Saturday we headed out early in the morning to the Lincoln Mountains and a high point location (Cloudcroft?) where there is restaurant that overlooks the mountain and the view is amazing and so was breakfast. After that we took a lot of small mountain roads and headed south to the town of Sunspot and the solar observatory. I have to say that it was a fun ride and the pine forests were just incredible beautiful. He had made arrangements in advance and we were given a VIP tour of the facility which was very interesting but noting particularly exceptional.
Afterwards we headed North through the Mescalero Reservation mountains where there were several Indian Casinos with private airstrips with small jets landing frequently and all the way to Ruidoso Downs, home of a famous horse race and then back to Alamogordo where we were staying. It was on of the more pleasant drive I have taken and if you like the outdoors and have a chance to do it I highly recommend it. Just be careful with the many cow grates on the small roads which can be dangerous if you are not careful, particularly while riding a motorcycle.
A couple of years ago I was back at White Sand, this time on the Northern portion of the facility and about 3 miles of the Trinity Site, doing evaluation of potential landing sites for the Space Capsule being built by Boeing to replace the now retired Space Shuttle. The original White Sands Space Harbor facility is now abandoned and hard to tell it ever was there.
That is my Sunspot, New Mexico story.
