White Sands Park

After going through the Space Museum and stopping for a Mexican lunch (love that Mexican food) we stopped at the White Sands National Park. The park is in the middle of the White Sands Missile Range and is on the way back to Las Cruces from Alamogordo.

The white sand is actually a crystal form of gypsum formed by centuries of freezing and thawing gypsum. It feels and acts exactly like sand while regular gypsum is a fine powder. The dunes cover 275 square miles and is the largest gypsum dune area in the world. In places it's estimated to be 2000 feet deep.

Although its a controlled park, you can walk anywhere you want on the dunes. Some people hike out into the dunes and camp over night as long as they get permission first. Winds soon cover foot prints so pristine dunes to walk on are easy to find.

We visited the dunes on a Sunday and a number of families were out for the day. They sell round snow discs at the gift shop and people take them out and slide down the dunes just like on snow. Although they weren't going as fast as on snow it looked like they were having as much fun and without the frostbite.

Roads are pushed through the dunes by graders and are solid for driving on although you'd swear its snow. It develops pot holes and a sheen to it just like winter roads. I even caught myself tapping my brakes to check on how slippery it was, duh! This motorhome gives you an idea of how high the dunes get.

If you didn't know better, doesn't this look like I'm sitting on a big snow drift? The sand is a brilliant white and blows into shapes just like snow.

The dunes are constantly moving across the desert. They build, crest, and then decline as they move on at about 30 feet per year. Kind of like waves except it takes years to build and decline. As the dune grows higher, some plants survive by sending down deeper roots to get to water and the plant grows taller to stay above the sand. As the dune declines the plants are left standing in the air because their roots keep the sand in place. Then as the wind blows the sand around, depressions are created around the plant. This sand mound is about 10 feet high.

A boardwalk has been set up in one area to allow you to see the interdune areas which can't be walked on due to delicate plants. This area will be completely under sand in 10 years or so. This is where the dunes are headed to and the ecosystem is changing as plants try to survive the sands advance. This area looks very similar to a beach at the ocean; you almost expect to see water on the other side of the dunes.