We visited the VLA the same day we went to the Trinity Site, and it is a beautiful drive from Socorro, NM. This is an easy 2-for-1 trip, as the VLA hosts an open house the first Saturday of each month and staff scientists are the tour leaders for the April and October events. The VLA was featured in the movie Contact.

http://www.vla.nrao.edu/

Spotted this antelope while waiting for the tour to begin

The tour started in the activity center with an overview provided by Rick Perley, one of the project scientists. Frankly, the information was way over my head and I zoned out during the technical discussion of how the 27 antennas work together. However I did find it interesting that when the antennas are in their largest configuration (as they were during our visit) they are actually viewing a smaller portion of the sky at a higher resolution and when in the smallest configuration a larger portion of the sky is viewed at a lower resolution. Completely opposite of what I thought it would be.

The tour then proceeded to the control building.

The man working in the control room wasn’t too thrilled to be interrupted and grudgingly answered questions. It was the first Saturday of the month, surely he knew there would be tour groups coming through??

Headed outside for a close up look at a working antenna. These things are HUGE! 10 stories tall and 230 tons.

Transporter

This was a worthwhile visit made more enjoyable by participating in the open house tour. I know I wouldn’t have learned as much if I had visited at a different time and walked the self-tour. I recommend stopping back at the visitor’s center after the tour to see examples of discoveries made by scientists using the VLA.

The Trinity Site is the location of the first atomic bomb explosion, and as it is on an active military facility (White Sands Missile Range), is only open one day each year on the first Saturday in April.

http://www.wsmr.army.mil/PAO/Trinity/Pages/default.aspx

Visitors turn off Hwy. 380 and drive 5 miles south to the Stallion gate (12 miles east of I-25 or 54 miles west of Carrizozo, NM). Alternatively, visitors can meet up with a caravan in Alamogordo, NM.

We spent Friday night in Carrizozo at the Four Winds Motel, a traditional motor inn with very clean and recently renovated rooms, then made the drive Saturday morning.

The line of vehicles to enter was appx. 1 mile long when we arrived, around 9 AM. All visitors must stop at the gate and show identification. It is an additional 17 miles from the gate to the Trinity Site parking lot.

Jumbo

Outside the outer gate is the remnant of the Jumbo casing – originally designed to prevent plutonium from being lost if the chain reaction failed to occur. However as the scientists gained confidence in the bomb design, plan to use Jumbo were suspended. (The ends are missing as the Army detonated eight 500-pound bombs inside it in 1946.)

From the outer gate, it is a 1/4 mile walk to ground zero.

Inner Gate

Lava Rock Monument – Ground Zero

Radiation at the site is low, just 10 times greater than the area’s natural background radiation. A one hour visit to the Trinity Site is equivalent to 1/2 of one millirem.  By comparison, a coast-to-coast flight has an exposure of two millirems.

Fat Man Bomb Casing

Panorama View

In all, we spent around an hour at the site. Unfortunately, the military was not running the optional bus tour to the McDonald House, where the bomb was assembled.

Honestly, there isn’t a lot to see: Ground Zero monument, a metal footing from the tower, Fatman bomb casing, and a metal shelter protecting part of the original crater. There are also historical photos etched in metal around a portion of the fence. But this is more about the historical significance of the site than the actual things to see. There were people present from all over the world, as I heard German, Japanese, French and a Scandinavian language,

Am I glad we went? Yes. Will we go back? No.