We were traveling North from El Paso, TX. White Sands was only an hour out of our way to East. It was WELL worth the trip out there. Only $3 per person to enter (pass is good for SIX days) and we had full access to free tours, picnic and board walk areas. You could walk around/on the dunes barefoot and really interact with the park. There was also a wonderful picnic area with grills where countless families spent the majority of the day playing in the sand and enjoying the park. Beautiful, surreal place. Highly recommend to all ages!
Sincerely,
White Sands National Park
They may look like mounds of snow, but the dunes in this park are made of a rare form of crystallized gypsum. Because gypsum dissolves easily in water, rain would normally wash it away and carry it to the sea. In this part of the Chihuahuan Desert, however, the land forms a basin, trapping the mineral; water evaporates, leaving the gypsum behind, and wind and weather erode it over time into an ocean of glittering sand. The entire dune field is a massive 275 square miles (by comparison, the second-largest gypsum dune field in the world, Cuatro Ciénegas in Mexico, is only 8 square miles). Hiking and sledding over this vast white expanse of powder is a singular, otherworldly experience.
State(s): New Mexico
Established: 1933
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Greetings from White Sands National Park
While making our way home to Illinois from Arizona we stopped at White Sands. What a delight. The soft sands of gypsum made the mounds a wonderful winter wonderland. Many had sleds. What a beautiful area.
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Greetings from White Sands National Park
The Giving Tree Band is a rock n roll band that are comprised of five musicians that are working their way around the National Park System, playing acoustically arranged songs in park settings to promote unity, harmony, and the well-being off all people and the planet. Further they are sharing…
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