White Sands National Monument (July 1, 2005)
 Having spent the whole morning in Santa Fe , we had to hurry on to White
Sands National Monument before it closed. The road to White Sands was
pretty monotonous for a good part of the drive. I must admit that I felt
a bit groggy after several days of driving or hiking and little sleep
at night. We drove past Alamogordo where the first nuclear tests were
conducted, arriving at White Sands late in the afternoon, but fortunately
just before the Visitor Center closed. The temperature read 105 F in
the shade. We sat through an informative introduction video of the park.
I learned that White Sands National Monument is the largest of its kind - some
275 square miles of gypsum sand dunes. Gypsum in its original state was
brownish and translucent with quartz like appearance. However, as it
decomposed into fine grains and got blown across lakes and lagoons and
rubbing against one another, the resulting sand becomes snow white. Driving
into the national monument took us a certain amount of determination.
After a long and tiring drive to get to the park, the prospect of going
into a desert at over 100 degrees F was not at all appealing. But having
traveled so far to reach it, we were compelled to do the park loop drive.
I am glad we did it though, since there was no other drive quite like
it, and that's no small statement with all my previous travels.  In a
way, it was surreal -Everything was white! And not just the sand dunes
- you'd naturally expect them to be white. But then all the huge roads
were all white as well. This white landscape was only disturbed occasionally
by park structures. Imagine yourself driving in a large region after
a snow blizzard, except with your air conditioner going full blast to
compensate for the excessive heat on the outside. To our surprise, many
people handled the heat much better than we did. We found a family sand
surfing down a dune. We even found a guy lighting a barbecue at the picnic
area, in the sun! After a good drive to see the landscape, we returned
to a rendezvous point with the interpretive Sunset Stroll Nature Walk
group. While waiting, I ventured out to the hills and took pictures of
the resilient yucca trees and the white sand dunes. I had to keep track
of my bearings as I climbed the hills, since there was nothing to give
me a sense of how to get back - once you climb past a hill, all hills
look the same. After half an hour of hiking and sweating, I returned
to the car, just in time to find the group ready to go on the stroll.
 The Sunset Stroll was lead by a pretty and knowledgeable volunteer who
taught us about the origin of the sand dunes, how wildlife survives and
even how to read animal tracks. My wife was probably listening more attentively
since I was busy looking for photographic subjects. Somewhere along the
way, the group even held hands to do something that I don't remember
J , except that I was not part of it. We then stayed to capture the sunset
moment. By this time, the heat has subsided to a tolerable extent. I
captured a few sunset images with the white sands reflecting the golden
color of the setting sun. We then said good bye to the group and headed
out as it was getting dark. I read somewhere that on full moon nights,
the park opens longer, and there would be ranger-led tours for photographic
purposes. Next time, I'd have to plan to visit on a full-moon night.
We had wanted to find a campsite at or near White Sands NM. However,
there was no campground in the park, and even if there were, we could
not stand the heat. So we pushed on, only to find out that the dashboard
light had gone out. We later found out that the rear break light used
the same fuse, and they were out as well, making driving much more hazardous!
In any event, we did not stop until we reached Las Cruces to make up
for the time we had lost by going on side trips to Grand Canyon and Paria
Vermillion Cliff. We checked in a passable hotel, hungry, tired and also
worried about our first car trouble of the trip, not knowing for sure
where we could get it fixed, and whether we could reach Carlsbad Caverns
the following day.
Follow the link for pictures from the visit
to White Sands National Monument.
Additional information about White Sands National Monument:
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