White Sands Monument Park

One of the reasons why we came here was to see White Sands. I could not believe that there is sand dunes in the middle of the desert. I was amazed when we arrived on Saturday morning, with snacks, suntan lotion and lots of fluids on hand. There are real sand dunes in the middle of nowhere. In the beginning of the park the dunes still have some vegetation. When you see a small tree in the picture, it actually is a lot taller, since the rest of it is hidden by the sands. The sand constantly shifts with the winds, so the dunes drift about 30 feet per year.


As we started driving in to the park further, the landscape started changing. There was barely any vegetation left and the paved road stopped. We actually drove on hardened sand and it looked like a snow plow had made a path for us.

Doug kept saying that it looks like big snow banks in Alaska.

The sand is so white and clean, it is very much blinding without sunglasses. The patterns created by the wind drifts in the sand were just indescribable and unfortunately the camera can't catch what the eye sees.It was just amazing. In some parts of the park they let you walk through the dunes and some people have plastic discs for sledding down the dunes. This place is totally cool.


Well, we thought that we were moving on to Santa Fe on Monday, but discovered at the visitor center that the Gila Cliff Dwellings are not to far from here, so we are heading west. I am sure that eventually we will head north to Utah, which is one of the states I want to see, but for right now I am glad that we have not booked anything along the way so that we are free to go wherever we feel like.