White hot stuff – Hiking Alkali Flats with Trail Snails

This feels like walking in soft marshmallows,” murmured Carolyn Dullum.There’s nothing like slow motion squish-walking down a gypsum dune. Trail Snails, a local hiking group, trek a most unusual hike into the gypsum dunes of White Sands National Monument, about an hour and a half from Ruidoso, New Mexico. “I’ve hiked Alkali Flats many times,” said Barbara Willard,...

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Vanilla cookie trees and other hiking surprises

A group of hikers pause along a heavily wooded trail in the Lincoln National Forest. One leans into a Ponderosa pine, sniffs the trunk and proclaims, “Vanilla cookie tree! Who wants to smell vanilla!” The other hikers raise their eyebrows, wondering if their companion has gone mad, but you can’t resist. Feeling slightly foolish, you lean into the tree,...

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