Day 68 - White Sands, New Mexico

We had a long difficult afternoon of traveling (someone did not want to be in a car seat) but it ended great.  We stopped at a cute little mountain town called Cloudcroft and wandered the street (there is only one I think!) and did some shopping (John even bought his first things on the trip – a t-shirt and a hat) and then we ended up at White Sands. 

What a completely bizarre place.   There are 250 square miles of the whitest and softest sand (actually gypsum) in the middle of this desert like area.  You drive down this 8 mile road that starts as asphalt and desert and then there are all of a sudden white hills of sand on either side of the road and then the road is no longer paved and you are driving on the sand (very compacted).  It is exactly like a huge beautiful snowfall (except that it is 110 degrees F).   It is the world’s largest field of gypsum sand dunes – if you walk 10 minutes in any direction, suddenly all you can see are chalk white dunes (30 feet high). There are some plants that grow in it even – the Yucca to name the only one I can remember.   There are also a few lizards, mice and even a fox that has adapted to this strange terrain.  But again, you can’t see them because they have all adapted and are white.  No disappointment on my part – oh darn, I can’t see the mice. 

We bought a snow/sand disk and tobogganed down the dunes!  It was so much fun!  The only drawback was the howling wind blowing the sand into our face (Jack was not impressed when that happened).  But I guess you can’t have dunes without wind.  The sand is really soft – I had to take my flip flops off because I almost lost them walking up the dune.  And even in this crazy heat, it’s not hot on your feet – because the white reflects the sun.

We took a ranger guided tour at sunset - the setting sun on the dunes is so beautiful.  It is a super cool place and another on the recommend to see someday list.