White Sands is pretty wild.

I went there once a few years ago during the summer. It was brutally hot out and dry as hell, but the sand was so cool you could have sworn there was an ice-rink under it or something. Even weirder though, it hurt to stare directly at the sand for too long since it reflected sunlight so well. I expect that you could probably get snow-blindness from staring at it for too long.

It felt like being in a field of gritty snow inside of an oven.

Agreed. On days where it's more desolate than usual I like to imagine I'm on a distant alien planet.

Alamogordo is about an hour away from where I live, I can't help but wonder if they'll let me pay a visit and check it out.

And I know Alamogordo as the site of the

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_(nuclear_test)

Actually the test was closer Socorro and the small town of San Antonio, NM (birthplace of the Hilton dynasty.) It was on what is now White Sands Missile Range which is very close to Alamogordo, but there is a mountain range between the test site and Alamogordo. The blast was visible from San Antonio though.

I would add that Alamogordo was the fictitious location of the giant ants in the film "Them!"

They open it once a year but you can see the site as you drive by. Very close to the outskirts Socorro, although WSMR is so large it covers both sides of the range if I'm not mistaken.