Trinity Site, where the world's first atomic bomb explosion took place on July 16, 1945, will be open to the public from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the northern end of the normally closed White Sands Missile Range, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported.

There is no charge for the public to attend, and visitors can walk from a parking area about a quarter mile to Ground Zero, where a small obelisk marks the spot where the Atomic Age began, the Sun-News said.

People can also ride a White Sands Missile Range shuttle bus for free from the Trinity Site to the Schmidt/McDonald ranch house about two miles away where Los Alamos scientists working on the super-secret Manhattan Project assembled the plutonium core of the device, the paper reported.

One way to get to the site is to enter the missile range at the Stallion Range Center gate, 5 miles south of the turnoff on U.S. 380, 12 miles east of San Antonio, N.M., and 53 miles west of Carrizozo.

The gate will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and visitors who arrive there will be given brochures about Trinity Site and will be allowed to drive unescorted to the site itself about 17 miles away, the Sun-News said.

Another way in will be to drive with a caravan that will leave at 8 a.m. Saturday from the parking lot at the Tularosa High School football field, a 75-mile drive without services along the route or at the site, the paper reported.

Military police will escort the Tularosa caravan once it arrives on the missile range, and the return trip to Tularosa will leave between 12:30 p.m. and 1 p.m., according to the Sun-News.

All adults will be required to show photo identification, and all vehicles are subject to search by military police, the paper said.

Motorists should also carry proof of insurance and current vehicle registration papers. 

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