White Sands National Park, New Mexico

October 7, 2022

White Sands National Park.

This is a "mini post" of our trip to White Sands National Park. We stopped here with Phil (our camper) after leaving Elephant Butte SP, and since we (mostly Julie) took so many pictures, we figured we would give it its own post. 

Apparently, White Sands is the largest gypsum dune field in the world, covering 275 square miles. Not all of the dunes are included in the national park, as a great portion of the field is part of the White Sands Missile Range. Fortunately, no missile testing was scheduled for when we were here. 

This was such a unique place, and it was a lot of fun walking on the dunes. The weather made for some great pictures with dark storm clouds on the horizon and the sun peaking out here and there, creating some dramatic lighting. We were glad it was mostly cloudy because when the sun did come out, it quickly felt pretty hot, even though it was only about 70 degrees.

We would have loved to camp here and experience the landscape during a full moon, but alas--no overnight parking is allowed for RVs. We did enjoy bringing the camper for the day so that we could have lunch and take cover when it started to rain.

Crossing over the San Augustin Pass just outside of Las Cruces, NM. The weather was quite moody.

Our first border check experience. We didn't actually cross the border, but we aren't too far from the border here.

White Sands NP visitor center

Our first glimpse of the white sand dunes along the scenic drive. It had been drizzling, which made it look like it just snowed and the road was plowed.

Some flowers!

The pavement eventually ended and the road turned into hard-packed sand.

It was actually easier to climb these dunes than sand dunes--you don't sink in as far.

Storm clouds were threatening, but the sun managed to peak out at times, creating very dramatic lighting.

You can see tracks where people had gone sledding down the dune.

That's how far you sink in when walking on top of the dunes. The sand felt quite soft and silky.

And some photospheres which really show just how large and white everything was!

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