White Sands National Monument

White Sands National Monument - April 22, 2003

White Sands

White Sands was on the way from Carlsbad Caverns to Chiricahua. Okay, so I could have taken a more direct route from Carlsbad to Willcox (the sites, respectively, of Carlsbad Caverns and Chiricahua), and missed White Sands. But why?

To get to White Sands National Monument, I took the northern route thru the Sacramento Mountains. I exited the mountains at the city of Alamogordo (say that three times fast). White Sands is about 20 minutes west.

White Sands is aptly named. It is, literally, a lot of white sand in the middle of the desert. The actual area covered by the sand is not that large, which is why the area is a monument and not a park (National Monuments are very similar to National Parks, just smaller). According to the literature thoughtfully provided by the National Park Service upon entry, the sand is actually gypsum, formed from deposits from a shallow sea which covered the area about 250 million years ago. That's a long time ago. The gypsum turned into stone and were uplifted into a giant dome about 70 million years ago (about the same time as the Rocky Mountains were formed). About 10 million years ago, the dome began collapsing and the Tularosa Basin was formed. The Tularosa Basin is where White Sands National Monument is located.

I arrived at the Monument late in the morning, and only spent a few hours there. I wanted to get to Arizona that evening, specifically to Willcox. It turned out that this was the warmest day I spent on the trip. Or at least, the warmest part of the trip. Must have something to do with the sun reflecting off of all of the white sand.

The sand had formed many, many dunes, which were constantly moving and changing shape. Posted signs asked visitors to stay on the "paths", ie not to go on the dunes and "mess up" the pretty sand. And it was pretty. But kind of unrealistic to expect kids not to want to climb in the sand. The scenic drive is about 8 miles long, and I drove every bit of it. I stopped a few times to get out and look closer at the sand. But after a while, sand is sand. The people were a bit strange, though. They brought out their lawn chairs and blankets, spread them out, just like it was a day at the beach. I guess this might be the closest to the beach that New Mexico comes.