Today John and I drove Liam and Kat to Las Cruces so they could get a rental car for their drive back to Chicago, and we drove on another hour to visit White Sands National Park. Here’s a map so you can get a sense of the locations and distances. The red pin is White Sands.
First, safe drive, Liam and Kat! Second, White Sands really lived up to its name. Driving there, we saw a band of white stand on the horizon.
Once we turned into the park, it was pure white snow-like sand everywhere! Emphasis on the snow-like for these Chicagoans!
There was an explanation on the NPS map about why white sand there, in southern New Mexico. It’s a rare sand called gypsum sand, formed after layers of sediment were under an inland sea, buried, then uncovered again. Sorry for any geologists reading who are disappointed with this explanation. It’s another interesting geological blip that is present in this part of the world, our quick take!
This park is very popular, and I’m guessing from Texas license plates, proximity, and my own visit here with Aunt Sandy and Uncle Dale in the 1970s, very popular with people from El Paso. There is a lot to do, from sledding to picnicing and walking around where every you want along the dunes, it’s really very appealing. We drove to the far end of the loop trail then parked and just started walking. The sand was firm to walk on and very pleasant and felt like (guessing!) walking on the moon. Like with so much around here, taking photos was fishing in a barrel. I’ll just show a bunch of the photos we took without further explanation. As you’ll see, we were transfixed with the sand ripples, the long vistas, and the way the desert plants we’ve become used to here live in the white sands environment. Hope you enjoy all the sand!
This doodad in the next pictures was perched on a dune and we don’t know what it is, but it made a nice “find our way back” reference point! And felt lunar.
The dunes really move up over desert plants.
While we focused on the empty nature part of the park, there is a big recreation use too. We saw people bringing in whole elaborate picnic sets! Also there was a lot of sledding, see the sled runs below. And with that, I think that’s all the sand photos we took today! It was interesting driving back to Silver City too, watching the landscape change back to what the more desert transition to forest that we’ve already become used to.
Cindy, you were 8 years old (Maddie’s age) when you last visited White Sands. I’m glad you got the opportunity to return and appreciate the ripples in the sand, the long vistas, and the desert plants. I’m looking at the photos on my computer, which has a larger screen than my phone, and the people at the sledding area look tiny, like little ants. It gives some perspective to the height of the sledding dunes.
Also, John, your sunglasses are very cool.
Wow that’s white sand alright! Very cool!!
White sands looks very impressive guys, great photosđŸ˜‰