The Southwestern Sojourn - Day 3: Very Large Array (VLA)

The VLA or Very Large Array of Radio Telescopes run by the National Radio Astronomy Agency, located between the towns of Datil and Magdalena, New Mexico, has been a sight I wanted to see since about this time last year.

No time then, made time this trip.

After a calm night at the RV park in Magdalena, NM I woke at around 5AM and made breakfast.  Soon after 6AM, I had Scarlett unloaded and was riding west along NM 60 towards the VLA.

Got there just before sunrise and my timing worked out great.  There was an incoming storm to the west as I parked Scarlett and I got these pics of the sun rising just before clouds moved in and it started snowing.

Yes, snowing.

 The horizon was aglow just before the sun peeked over

the eastern horizon

 Using Sunset Mode

The sun rising, you can see the snow flakes coming

down as the clouds moved towards the east, 

finally completely obscuring the rising sun.

So it snowed and was completely overcast for perhaps 30-40 minutes, I took what pics I could but the blowing snow was pretty heavy.

Pretty big dish eh?

Finally, the snow clouds blew past towards the east and the sun started to come out and light things up a bit:

 The eastern "leg" of the three legged formation of dishes

Saddling up, I rode over to the highway to get these shots of the northern "leg" of dishes visible from a parking spot provided for just such viewing by highway drivers.

 Yep the dishes do move, pretty regularly....

The visitor center wasn't going to open till 9AM and I decided to instead return to Magdalena to get the URRV ready for travel.

I left the village of Magdalena shortly after 9am I think and a couple of hours later was setting up camp on BLM land 15 miles north of the town of Truth or Consequences.  Yep, the town named themselves after a game show.

It was sunny finally but the strong gusty wind conditions forecasted till 8PM tonight made for chilly conditions.

Tomorrow is a non-travel day and forecasted to be warmer (I'll settle for little to no winds!).  I hope to explore the canyon area to the east of the campsite.