White Sands National Park
Outside Alamogordo, NM


Caught between the Sacramento Mountains to the east and the San Andres Mountains to the west, the glistening White Sands of New Mexico fill the southern half of the Tularosa Basin. It is one of the world's great natural wonders and in 2020 became the newest U. S. National Park. In the last 12,000 years, great undulating, shape-shifting dunes of gypsum sand have filled and transformed 275 square miles of desert, creating the world's largest gypsum dunefield. About 40% of these sands are protected by the boundaries of the new park. It's like the Sahara, but no: the undefinable shade of white sand is cool and pillow soft and you can walk barefoot in it in the hottest sun. It's like an endless beach, but no: there is no lake or ocean to jump into. It looks like the highest drifts of snow after a massive blizzard, but no: when you slide down the dunes, you never get wet. It's is a place to play, explore, and meditate.

As you approach from Alamogordo on U. S. Highway 70, at first you see what is an inexplicable distant snow bank stretching along the horizon, which soon turns into a growing frozen-in-motion white tsunami, which turns abruptly into an 40' white wall festooned with interwoven grasses, agaves, live bushes and dead desert brush. As you go deeper into the dune field and stop at the many turn outs for exploration you are immersed in a sparkling wind-sculpted world of amazement. There are not enough words to describe the many shades of white and gray, pale and dark blue, brightness and shadow, which surround you because they keep changing as the day goes on. Then, at sunset, this nearly pristine world turns to a thousand subtle pastels that mingle, blend and deepen together until darkness prevails.

The photos below, sans commentary, are a mixture of two day's experiences. We arrived for the late day sunset on the first day. Those pictures are interspersed toward the end with pictures taken on the second full day.

Learn more here:
White Sands on Wikipedia
White Sands on NPS.gov