The moonlike landscape at White Sands National Park.
Rippled sand and peaked dunes at White Sands National Park.
Full moon at Rockhound State Park.
Park, a fantastic, 275-square-mile expanse of what looks like pure white beach sand right in the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert. The "sand" is actually a gypsum dunefield that shifts in the winds, forming rippled flats, tall peaks and creased dunes. Before heading into the park with our truck, we walked along the boardwalk over the dunes near the Visitors Center for a preview of what the dunes and the dune vegetation were all about. But the best way to experience this moonlike landscape is go deep into the park via the Dunes Drive that winds through the sand to the heart of the dunefield. We felt like we were driving on a recently plowed snowy road with snow banked up steeply on either side. When we stopped to take some photos, we heard the shouts and laughter of kids nearby, and we were suddenly transported in spirit to a snowy hillside as we saw both children and parents sledding down the gypsum hills on colorful saucers. To our astonishment, we discovered that the National Park Service encourages visitors to play in the sand dunes. They even rent out specially waxed snow saucers that work best in this kind of "snow." We could see everyone was having a blast on the hillsides, and we later learned the National Park Service offers a video on their website explaining why saucers work better than
toboggans or flat sheets of cardboard. They also show how to control your snow saucer with your body and get it up to top speed! After watching the sledding for a while, we embarked on some slightly slower paced pleasures out in the dunes. We created footprint trails going this way and that, we laid down in the gypsum and made snow angels, and we took photos of the beautiful undulating patterns that criss-crossed the white sand in every direction. Unlike other places, unleashing our artistic impulses on this wild landscape was not destructive to the dunes in the least because the wind quickly replaces all imprints in the sand with its own patterns—offering a fresh easel to each day's visitors in much the same way shaking an old fashioned Etch-a-Sketch erases the lines to start a new drawing. As we wandered around, we found sparse vegetation here and there eeking out a living in the arid land and, far in the distance, mountain ridges edged the tops of our photos with a blue sawtooth pattern. Leaving White Sands behind, we continued our road trip in a northeast direction and took a brief detour off U.S. Highway 70 at the town of Hondo to head to the village of Lincoln. This National Historic Landmark is one of the best preserved and most authentic examples of an old Western town still standing in America today.
ROAD TRIP
COAST TO COAST SPRING MAGAZINE 2021
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