White Sands Balloon Festival
I am so happy that White Sands National Monument is now White Sands National Park. President Trump signed the bill designating this on December 20, 2019.
In September, the Alamogordo Chamber of Commerce held the White Sands Balloon and Music Festival. My employer, Pioneer Bank, was a sponsor so my daughter, Shelby and friend (and fellow Pioneer Bank Team Member), Esther, attended the liftoff on Saturday morning. The weather was a little touch and go with the wind, but ultimately, the balloons lifted off.
If you do plan to go, get there very early. We rose at 5 a.m. and it took about an hour just to get into the park. Leaving was even worse. The festival is great, but there is virtually very little, or no, traffic control. Having been at this event once before, I had an idea of what to expect so we brought a sled to have fun. I really wish they would have better traffic control. The lines to exit the park literally stood still for almost two hours. When it did finally begin to move and we decided to leave, it stood still again for at least another 30 minutes. When we finally did leave the park, we could see why. There was absolutely no traffic control Hundreds of cars were trying to leave the park – across a major highway.
All in all, I would recommend you go to this at least once. White Sands is absolutely beautiful and the balloons were so much fun to watch.
