White Sands is the largest white sand, gypsum dunefield in the world. One of the easiest and most popular ways to see the park is to drive the eight-mile Dunes Drive. The national parks service preserves the vast majority of this vast area along with the native plants and animals. It isn’t spectacular at first. Looks like Arizona desert with white sand. By the end of the drive, the dunes are the tallest snow drifts EVER! It was fun climbing them in our bare feet. And we saw families sledding in the sand. Ok this type of “snow” is a blast!
After driving through on Dunes Drive, Papa and I returned to do two easy hikes. The first was the Interdune Boardwalk. A short, accessible walk with informative stations and several rest areas along the way.
Then we did the Dune Life Trail. The first part was easy and not much sand. Upper left is from the top of the first ridge looking back at BetsyB in the parking area. From the ridge on, it was all white sand. No way to have a manicured trail. We relied on the blue posts to mark the way, and a few footprints. Papa found one shade tree along the way.
This is a fun area. There are several museums like the Space Mural Museum and the Space History Museum. There is the Missile Museum. We tried, but didn’t have all the documents we needed with us in order to get security clearance. We were turned away. That’s ok. Missiles are scary and playing in the sand was so much fun.
Within 30 minutes of checking into the motel, we hear a racket at the window and then, the power went out. Yup. Major thunderstorm. The power was only out for a few minutes but the storm lasted almost two hours. At times it sounded like hail. I don’t think there was any hail, though. BetsyB needed a shower so it’s all good.
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