Alamagordo Sites
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The New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo was a fascinating mix of space exploration and military history. Nearby White Sands Missile Range, established in 1945, played a major role in early rocket testing, hosted the first Apollo launches from U.S. soil, and later served as a shuttle pilot training site. It is also tied to the Trinity Test, where the first atomic bomb was detonated. In 1982, Space Shuttle Columbia landed there.
Inside the museum, one of the most memorable stops was the gravesite of HAM, the first chimp sent into space and returned safely. His flight helped pave the way for human spaceflight. The museum also had an exhibit on the growing problem of space debris, with over 100 million pieces now orbiting Earth. And because no space museum is complete without a little fun, there was also a Star Trek transporter where Danny got “beamed up.”
After all that space history, we switched gears completely and stopped at McGinn's PistachioLand, home of the world’s largest pistachio. The 30-foot roadside attraction is impossible to miss. The place was packed, and the line for pistachios or a farm tour was at least 40 people deep, so we passed on both. We did grab some free samples of flavored pistachios, then treated ourselves to homemade pistachio ice cream, which had a much shorter line and was simply divine.
Our next Alamogordo stop was the Toy Train Depot, which turned out to be way more fun than I expected. I’m not a toy train enthusiast, but the passion and knowledge of the volunteers was contagious. The museum is housed in a historic 1898 train depot, which John and Merry Koval purchased and moved to its current location in the late 1980s. About 70% of the current collection belonged to John, who was running out of room at home and wanted to share his love of trains with the public. The highlight was a 1,000-square-foot model of 1940s Alamogordo. It took five years to complete, and the amount of detail packed into that room was incredible.
That stop left us inspired enough to make one more train-related detour. We headed up to nearby Cloudcroft to see the Mexican Canyon Trestle, a wooden railroad trestle from the old line that once climbed from Alamogordo into the Sacramento Mountains. After spending the morning looking at model trains, it was fun to end the day with a real piece of railroad history still standing in the mountains.
Cloudcroft itself felt like a completely different world from the desert below. The town sits at a much higher elevation, surrounded by ponderosa pines, and the cool mountain air was a sharp contrast to Alamogordo.
It ended up being a full day of sight seeing: space history, pistachio ice cream, toy trains, and an old railroad trestle tucked into the pines.
After all that space history, we switched gears completely and stopped at McGinn's PistachioLand, home of the world’s largest pistachio. The 30-foot roadside attraction is impossible to miss. The place was packed, and the line for pistachios or a farm tour was at least 40 people deep, so we passed on both. We did grab some free samples of flavored pistachios, then treated ourselves to homemade pistachio ice cream, which had a much shorter line and was simply divine.
Our next Alamogordo stop was the Toy Train Depot, which turned out to be way more fun than I expected. I’m not a toy train enthusiast, but the passion and knowledge of the volunteers was contagious. The museum is housed in a historic 1898 train depot, which John and Merry Koval purchased and moved to its current location in the late 1980s. About 70% of the current collection belonged to John, who was running out of room at home and wanted to share his love of trains with the public. The highlight was a 1,000-square-foot model of 1940s Alamogordo. It took five years to complete, and the amount of detail packed into that room was incredible.
That stop left us inspired enough to make one more train-related detour. We headed up to nearby Cloudcroft to see the Mexican Canyon Trestle, a wooden railroad trestle from the old line that once climbed from Alamogordo into the Sacramento Mountains. After spending the morning looking at model trains, it was fun to end the day with a real piece of railroad history still standing in the mountains.
Cloudcroft itself felt like a completely different world from the desert below. The town sits at a much higher elevation, surrounded by ponderosa pines, and the cool mountain air was a sharp contrast to Alamogordo.
It ended up being a full day of sight seeing: space history, pistachio ice cream, toy trains, and an old railroad trestle tucked into the pines.