COVID may have delayed us, but it can't stop us! #17
Welcome to the #62 National Park - White Sands.
Well, it's been 10 long months since I've been able to get to a national park because of COVID. I was so excited to start a new adventure!
I planned the trip and Ashley, my frequent travel buddy, came along. After arriving in El Paso, Texas, we headed north to the newest National Park...White Sands National Park!
For me, this was National Park #17, for Ashley it was #15. My America the Beautiful Annual Pass had just expired without much use due to the pandemic, but we lucked out here and didn't need to pay. There was limited access to the visitor's center, but they did their new park patches. Score!
Around the back of the visitor's center is where you can rent or buy sleds. They offer new and used sleds, but there may be a limited number of used sleds available (the people in front of us bought the last ones). How do they obtain used sleds? If you buy a new sled and you bring it back to the center, they will give you $5. Pro tip here - spend the extra $1.99 on the cube of wax, you'll need it!
Why on earth would you want a sled in a National Park that has no snow? The answer isn't sand, it's gypsum. What is gypsum anyway? Well, we looked it up. It's a soft sulfate mineral that is used in lots of products like drywall, sidewalk chalk, fertilizer, toothpaste, etc...It's interesting, it is soft to the touch and doesn't stick to you like sand. And if you put enough wax on a sled, apparently you can ride it down a hill.
So, we got our sled and off we went. We had asked the ranger at the visitor center about any good hiking trails. The answer we got was, "Well....you can take the back country camping trail." Okay, we thought we headed off to find this trail. Ha! This trail was not really a trail at all as much as it was a series of gypsum hills with orange stakes that you walked up and down.
Regardless, we had a lot of fun. We slid down lots of hills, explored the vegetation that somehow managed to grow out of this barren desert-like ecosystem and were so generally thrilled to be parking again!
Okay! Fun Facts about this park
10,000 years ago this was Lake Otero and the surrounding area was a grassland where mammoth, ancient camels, and people came.
Today, there are animals that live in this environment. There is a lizard that has adapted over the last 8,000 year to become white in color to disguise itself from predators.
Before you go, check online. The park is occasionally closed due to nearby missile testing. No joke!
The dune field covers 275 square miles of gypsum, the largest in the world.
Sunglasses are highly recommended due to the brightness of the gypsum.
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