We are not Alone…

Wanna hear a cool UFO story? No? Well, too bad…
It was the summer of 2014 BC (Before Charlie); Mom and I had taken the car on a camping trip out west so she could experience some of the places that I had on previous motorcycle trips.
Northern New Mexico has many federally-protected Dark Sky areas, places far out in the desert where both light and atmospheric pollution is limited. Clayton Lake State Park was the first of these places that we set up camp; the Milky Way was so bright that it looked like it had painted with a roller, soaring across the night sky and down towards the horizon. But it didn’t stop there; the surface of the lake was so still that the arc of the stars above was perfectly reflected on the mirror-like water below. It was enough to give me a case of vertigo, as what was really up, and what was really down?
The next night, we camped at Heron Lake. Mom had went to bed, and I was sitting in a camp chair outside to better work on my moon tan. Actually, there was no moon that night, but the thought of a portly pale middle aged guy in a Speedo sprawled out under the stars struck me as funny, and I couldn’t resist afflicting you with the mental image as well; you are welcome.
So I was photgraphing the Milky Way to the south; everything was peaceful until I caught a bit of motion in my peripheral vision to my right. Off in the distance, a ball of light descended towards the earth, but not in a streak as a meteor would, more in a meandering fashion, then another smaller light followed the same path, both making a small “J” hook back upwards at the bottom of their descent.
And this was just the first. The skies off to the northwest of our location soon became crowded with lights zooming soundlessly around in the atmosphere, almost like they were dancing. It was spectacular enough that I felt compelled to roust Mom from her sleeping bag, as who was going to believe me without at least one witness?
But just watching them was not enough for Mom, so she just had to get involved. She started flashing one of my most powerful flashlights towards the northwest skies; this would NOT do. How was I to know that her random flashes weren’t some sort of alien Morse code inviting them to our camp site for a rousing game of Hide the Pellet?
And sure enough, the dancing lights seemed to draw closer. Mom quickly saw the error of her ways and became concerned about the situation she had attracted. She was shaken to the point that she was talking about waking others in the neighboring campsites, a plan that I quickly vetoed; I did not feel like explaining to others that two Arkansas hillbillies were seeing “things” in the night sky.
This experience left me with many questions: as the usual New Mexico areas of purported paranormal activity, Roswell, Los Alamos, etc, were far to the south of Heron Lake, what were we witnessing towards the northwest? Many years have passed with no logical answer, but I’ve always wondered… I’m neither a skeptic nor am I sporting a tinfoil hat, just someone who isn’t self-centered enough to believe that we are the only life forms to inhabit the billions of galaxies in our universe.
Then just a few months ago, I was surfing around YouTube when I saw a title that grabbed my attention: “Dulce, NM, underground UFO/military base” . I have been through Dulce a multitude of times over the years, never gave it much thought as it’s only claim to fame as I was concerned was that it is the entrance to a huge Jicarilla Apache reservation. And if I didn’t remember to take a hard left at the only stoplight in town, that’s where I might end up, instead of up in Colorado as initially planned. Yet here it was, not one but many videos and websites telling in detail of various encounters of the third kind, especially concerning Archuleta Mesa just north of town.
So, why did the mention of Dulce grab my attention? Because Dulce is approximately 30 miles as the crow flies from Heron Lake…
…to the northwest.
Hmmmm…