The Land Of White Sands

After spending two days on the border of Mexico in El Paso, Texas, we headed back inland into the state of New Mexico. On this loop of our trip we're hoping to repeat as few locations as possible from the ones we saw on our last loop around the US, but White Sands National Monument was just so astounding last time that we couldn't pass through New Mexico without stopping in again. Although the afternoon we picked could have been slightly less windy (read: 40 ml/hr wind gusts), the park proved itself just as amazing as we'd remembered it. Instead of writing a long post about what all was so amazing, I'll let pictures speak for themselves.

Driving into the White Sands park

Sand, sand everywhere!

We have arrived!

Playing on the dunes

We spent the afternoon running around on the dunes, trying not to get sand in our eyes. Little did I know that by the end of the day I would have sand in my hair, my eyes and my ears (!), not to mention a pound or so of it in my shoes. (Ha, the park rangers didn't know it..but I got away with loads of sand samples!) When the wind blew particularly hard, it was like we were caught in a blizzard. Quite epic really, I loved every moment of it!

Sand storm!

Sand angel

Sand stand

This was where I got sand all in my camera lens

In the evening we joined a park ranger on a Sunset Stroll ranger walk and talk. He took us deep into the dunes to explain vegetation, animal life and the history of the park. It also gave us a chance to get some awesome sunset pictures!

Sunset at the White Sands

Good night!

The park offers first come, first served tent camping opportunities on the sands, and we'd originally planned to stay the night in the park in hopes of getting some epic photographs. BUT, then we looked at the forecast, which called for high winds along with temperatures in the 30s, and all of a sudden our nice, warm trailer sounded much better. I'm not quite that hardy when it comes to sticking it out for that one good picture.So, instead we got back on the road after the park closed and drove on I-10 until we came across a truck stop at mile marker 68. It was well after dark at this point, so we figured this would be our best option. It turned out to not be so bad...we fell right asleep, lulled into slumber by humming diesel engines.

To see more pictures of the White Sands National Monument, click here.

Happy White Sands Dreaming,

M.

P.S. One note to self: exposed camera lens plus wind plus sand equals bad things.