White Sands National Monument

This is part of the reason I drove to Texas, rather than fly there. White Sands National Monument is near Alamogordo, New Mexico, not too far off the I-10. It's the largest area of gypsum sand dunes in the world (there are larger dunes in other places, but they're not made of gypsum).

I had planned on staying in Alamogordo tonight, so I could get to the dunes when the morning light would cast some good shadows. But I got there early enough tonight that I was able to spend about three hours there, playing on the dunes and then taking the Sunset Nature Walk. The lighting was perfect.

One unusual feature of White Sands is the Park Rangers, who in most places keep you on the trail on pain of death, but here they let you play on the plant-free dunes as much as you want (You have to stay off the dunes with plants, though). One family brought their snow toys. They had the one-man disks and a couple of toboggans that they had waxed up and that slid down the dunes really fast.

My only toys were my feet and my camera, but they worked great (except that I think I lost my camera's spare memory card there when I took my car keys out of my pocket, but it was the empty card). Every step I took up the dunes made the sand cascade downward, so it was a little like trying to go up the down escalator, but the sand was soft and cool around my feet (another feature is that gypsum doesn't absorb heat, so the sand never gets hot enough to burn you). Coming back down, I tried to surf (ski?) down the slope. It didn't quite work, but the sliding sand gave a lot of downward motion for each step.

What a fun place to play!

And then on the nature walk, I learned about the dunes and how they were made and why they aren't going anywhere anytime soon and what plants can survive being covered up by sand and how they manage it. But I won't bore anyone with the details. I was fascinated. You might not be.

If you're in New Mexico, especially if you're on your way from California to Texas (or back the other way), definitely take some time to stop and play at White Sands. Oh, and bring your kids. They might like it too.