"Oh White Sands, come hold my lonely hand..."

We spent this day at White Sands National Monument. This is the road into the heart of the dunes area; at this point, there is no pavement and you are driving directly on packed dirt and sand. The banked sides from grading and the white color makes it feel like you are driving through snow.


This is probably the most surreal picnic spot we've ever been to.



The sand is actually about 97% pure gypsum, a mineral which is water soluble and has eroded out of the surrounding hillsides via rainwater, settled into alkali flats in the valley, crystallized again, gotten picked up by the wind, and formed into the dunes. It is a very special set of circumstances that created this place.





These are the markers for one of the trails in the park, which is the only way to mark a path out there. We had done a bit of cross-dune wandering, and quickly discovered that one couldn't rely on footprints for the way back; it was incredibly windy and ours would disappear back into the ripples in a matter of minutes. Unlike some of the dunes we've been out on, these were fairly hard-packed, and only the top few inches are loose.



There is almost no vegetation out there.


Click me to see where we went.