Our next adventure took us to New Mexico to check out the White Sands National Park. Here is how the National Park’s website describes it, ‘Like a mirage, dazzling white sand dunes shimmer in the tucked-way Tularosa Basin in southern New Mexico. They shift and settle over the Chihuahuan Desert, covering 275 square miles—the largest gypsum dunefield in the world. The White Sands National Park preserves more than half of this oasis, its shallow water supply, and the plants and animals living here.’1
At this park, there is a 16 mile loop road but unfortunately, the loop road was closed at mile marker 3. The National Park’s website initially said that it was a ‘weather event’, but when we got to our campground, the owner told us that an F-16 plane had crashed in the park earlier in the month. This makes sense because the Holloman Air Force Base and the White Sands Missile Range are adjacent to the park.
Hiking and sand sledding are a two of this things that attract people to this location. With the closure of the majority of the park, there were some opportunities to try sand sledding, but the best area for this was beyond where the park was open.
Here is a video of a lady I saw sand sledding
The views were just beautiful.
When we left the park, we headed to Alamogordo just to look around and see the park from a different perspective. If you look closely at the picture below, you will see a white line across the center of the picture. That is part of the 275 square miles of the White Sands.
We drove another 2,000 feet up the mountain and you can still see the White Sands. It was a little hazy, but we could still see the sands.
Ok who can guess what these are?
If you guessed pistachios, you are absolutely correct!! We even got to see the world’s largest pistachio!!
The campground we stayed at had some cool features. Behind the sites, Cole and I took a walk and saw a really neat watershed area. This is where the water runs off from the mountains.
All in all, we had a great time, but more adventures are waiting for us, so, on the road we go!
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So did you try Sand Surfing? Beautiful pictures
Wow! Did you white sand sled?
I tried to sand sled, but I couldn’t get it going!
Looks fabulous!!
Looks like you and Cole had fun. Sand sledding.. Was the sand hot?
Have fun!
The tree looks cool and the big pistachio
is cool looking. David loves pistachios!
Very cool!! Rob would have loved pistachio land!