White Sands National Park is in southeastern New Mexico surrounded by the towns of Las Cruces to the south, Alamogordo and Tularosa to the east, Hatch and Truth or Consequences to the west, and San Antonio to the north.
The park is known mainly for its 275 square miles of white gypsum sand dunes, the largest dunefield of its kind. The park is surrounded by the White Sands Missile Range which is used by all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces for testing weapons systems. It is also the home of Holloman Air Force Base.
It was not always as it is today. About 12,000 years ago the area of the sand dunes was a fertile valley with lakes and river systems, but warming of the climate led to gypsum runoff from the surrounding mountains. When combined with drying of the waterways, the result is the miles of gypsum dunes we see today filling in the low lying valley. The process is continuing. The park is always growing.
White Sands is one of the most visited national parks and the most visited national park in New Mexico. There is an eight mile road plowed through the dunes starting from the visitors center and plenty of places to pull off, park, and explore. Visitors are warned the keep track of their surroundings. In such a monochrome landscape, it is easy to become disorientated and get lost if you stray too far from the road.
Although White Sands can be described as desert it is not without plant and animal life. There is water below the surface - enough to support life in many varieties. Some species are known to to thrive only in this environment.
The closest major cities are El Paso, Texas and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
It's not an easy drive for most visitors, but there is no other place like it on earth and because the wind is always carving the dunes into new shapes, each visit is different.
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© Dean Pagani 2023