We did White Sands wrong (and how you can do it right)

If you missed our last post, we hit 2 adjacent National Parks on back-to-back days. The actual plan, however, was to hit 3 National Parks 3 days in a row. Weather forced us to shift our plans. During our overnight stay at Guadalupe Mountains, a big windstorm blew in, and huge gusts of wind do not make for a very peaceful night's sleep. The morning we were supposed to leave, we had a 2-hour window of time where the peak gusts dropped to safe enough speeds for us to RV, and so we quickly packed up and hauled ourselves off the mountain. This 2-hour window was right at the crack of dawn, so our sleepless night also led to an early morning. The only silver lining in this was that we got to see a beautiful sunrise as we packed up.

We left most of the wind behind in the mountains, but our travel day was slow. We needed to stop off in El Paso so I could jump on a work meeting. After that, we went to the day's final destination of Alamogordo, NM. We hoped to drive to White Sands National Park before heading to our campsite at the nearby Oliver Lee Memorial State Park. The park loop at White Sands is large enough for RVs to get around, and we would have loved nothing more than to grab some incredible photos of Buggy in the dunes (Dune Buggy!). Unfortunately, our exhaustion got the best of us, and for our safety and wellbeing, we needed to scrap our plan. Instead, we headed straight to the state park and checked in early.

We know we made a good choice in that we would have hated maneuvering into our site as exhausted as we were. However, we will never know what our experience would have been RVing around White Sands. All we know is what happened the next day.

We had 2 days to explore the National Park, the Sunday and Monday of President's Day Weekend. Many people just visit the park for a day, so we knew that even skipping Saturday, we would have plenty of time to explore. The initial plan was, instead of RVing the loop road, to ebike it. This way, we could get the lay of the land and decide how best to maximize our enjoyment when we return the next day.

We ended up scrapping this plan, too. As soon as we arrived to the Visitor Center, our jaws dropped. The park was so crowded! There was hardly any parking at the Visitor Center, and the line to the entrance gate was dozens of cars long. We think we have gotten accustomed to not having crowds at National Parks. Even visiting some of the most popular parks in the country, crowds have not been an issue for us at all. White Sands isn't one of the most visited National Parks, but we soon realized that, on nice weekend days, the locals come here to play. After all, it was a long weekend, and we lucked out with temperatures in the high 60s and hardly any wind. These locals know what's what; you can never take the lack of wind for granted.

We knew that ebiking was off the table because, with all the cars, we wouldn't feel safe. Instead, we decided to stay in the truck. The National Park Service (NPS) app has self-guided tours, and so we found an auto tour of Dunes Drive. We had our plan for the day. We parked illegally, quickly ran into the Visitor Center to buy our pin, and then got in the long line to the entrance gate.

20 minutes later, we were still in line, creeping closer and closer to the gate, when all of a sudden, the ranger came out of his booth and started ushering all the cars in without taking payments. He was rather hasty about it, too, yelling at us to go faster when all we were trying to do was obey the speed limit! We weren't exactly sure why this happened, but our best guess is that, if the line grows so long that it risks seeping out onto the main road, they forgo the fees to keep the road clear. We have a National Parks Pass, so we didn't save any money, but we're sure a lot of the vehicles did that day.

As is the case with most National Parks, the further you travel, the more dispersed everyone gets. A lot of the vehicles stopped at the pull-offs to go sledding. We stuck with the loop road. This park feels like a whole different world. The dunes are made of finely ground gypsum, which causes the light whiteish color. White Sands is the largest area of gypsum dunes in the world. I had learned about this place while it was still a National Monument, and when it got redesignated as a National Park in 2019, I could understand why. However, seeing it in person gave a whole new perspective. Lots of people say the dunes look like snow piles, and we could see some resemblance, especially with the "sand banks" on the side of the road, and of course all of the sledders. Back home in New England, our family was getting real snow, and here we were, in our own unique white oasis.

But...we weren't enjoying ourselves. What was the matter? We got through the entrance gate quickly, we weren't stuck in traffic as we had feared, and the views were spectacular. A little over halfway around Dunes Drive, we decided to pull over. I got out of the truck, and that's when it hit me. We were doing White Sands all wrong!

Just seeing the dunes from our truck wasn't sufficient. This place needed to be a multi-sensory experience. As soon as I stepped foot outside, I could feel the air and smell the fresh breeze. I walked over to the sand and scooped some up with my hands: Crusty and dry on the surface, yet cold and soft underneath. We walked up one of the dunes and saw the vantage point from high above the road. We may not have gotten beauty shots of Buggy, but Clyde looked mighty fine, with his dark exterior contrasting with the light color of the dunes.

I took some macroshots of the grains of sand. These were all once part of larger gypsum minerals, but gypsum is soft enough that it wears down easily in the wind, becoming these tiny crystal-like grains. We got out our water bottle and wet some of the sand to see how the texture changed and how quickly the water would get soaked up. The underlayers of the dunes are soft and cool because they hold onto water that comes during the area's wet season. This is how the species in the park survive. With our wet sand, we built a tiny sandcastle to see how well the sand would mold. We topped it with a "flag" we made from a stick and a packet of Little Caesar's crushed red pepper that we found buried in the sand (which we then promptly threw away).

This was exactly what getting the lay of the land was all about. We now knew what we needed to do. We needed more immersion. We finished our auto tour and then opted for another self-guided tour on the app, this time venturing through the dunes on foot. The description told us we'd get a sensory experience, and that's exactly what we were looking for.

The Dune Life Nature Trail is located fairly close to the park entrance, and it covers 1 mile through some of the older dunes in the park. Along the way are descriptive signs, which added supplemental information to our audio tour. Even though the distance isn't far, the trail is all on sand and has some ups and downs, so it's slow moving. We took our time, stopping at the signs and doing all of the tour activities. We engaged all 5 senses, but our favorite was smell. We found hoary desert rosemary bushes and learned how to release their aromas by gently pressing the leaves, without causing damage to the plant. We also learned how the plants, animals, and insects survive in the dunes, through many years of evolutionary adaptation, that helps them blend in with their environment. They have evolved to be light in color, and they are extremely difficult to spot. I accidently walked upon a moth, which startled and flew away before I could snap a picture. It blended in so perfectly with the dunes, that I didn't even see it until it flew up from my feet.

On our way out of the park, we noticed that the Visitor Center was a little less crowded, and they had a video that played every half-hour, which was about to start in a few minutes. We quickly parked and headed inside to the theater. The park's video is about 15 minutes long and gives an introduction to the land and its importance in studying adaptation. We learned some interesting facts about the plants we had just hiked among, but our favorite fact of all was how the sumac trees survive among the dunes. The roots hold onto water under the ground, and the sand hardens to create mounds that stay stable in the high winds. The sumacs grow atop these mounds, and their elevated position keeps them from getting covered by all the blowing sand. We had seen a couple of "structures" during our drive and thought that maybe visitors were trying to create "sand igloos," but this was the work of the sumac tree.

We left our first day at White Sands with a clear idea of what we needed to do to make the next day even better. Must-do #1: Take Tanner. The entire park is dog-friendly and we couldn't leave the area without giving him this fun and unique adventure. Must-do #2: Get our butts on some sleds. Sand dunes and Nicole don't mix, and I actually suffered a permanent injury thanks to this fateful sandboarding day, but hopefully sledding wouldn't be as deleterious. Must-do #3: Pack a picnic. The picnic areas at White Sands are plentiful and adorable, with little covered areas to shade people from the desert sun, and even grills if you feel like cooking!

Our plan worked out great. Even though the Monday was a holiday, it was a lot less crowded than our first visit. We drove around to the same pull-off we stopped at the day before and took our sleds and Tanner on the dunes. Tanner had absolutely no clue what to think, but he was a trooper, even pushing through his arthritis to climb some of the dunes with us. I offered to sled down with him on my lap, as I used to do this with him on slides, but he wasn't having any of it. He preferred to run down the dunes instead, pulling me along with him.

Sand sledding is different from snow sledding in that you need to wax your sleds. You can buy or rent sleds and wax from the park Visitor Center as well as many of the local shops. We were able to get ours on loan from our camphost. You need a lot of wax to slick the bottom of the sled. Similar to snow sledding, the better you carve a packed path, the faster you will go. We're not small people, so we easily sunk into the soft sand. Tanner definitely helped me get some good momentum.

After sledding, we went over to one of the picnic areas for lunch. Then, on our way out, we stopped at the Playa Trail and took the .5-mile walk to see some of the driest, whitest gypsum in the park.

We learned a lot from our two days at White Sands National Park, and we came away with a lot of advice that we wanted to share.

First and foremost, the best way to experience the park is to immerse yourself in its landscape. Treat White Sands like your playground, whether that means running up the dunes, sledding, building sandcastles, or just playing with the sand. Make tactile contact with the gypsum.

If you're able to, do not go on a crowded day. The Visitor Center parking lots are small, and if you're planning on renting a sled there, the lines can get very long.

Bring your RV, or at least pack a picnic. Most size RVs would have no problem driving the Dunes Drive loop, and the pull-offs are very RV-friendly. Not only can you get incredible photos of your home-on-wheels, but you can pull off the side of the road and have lunch in the middle of the dunes. We still wish we were able to do this, but our picnic lunch was a good Plan B. The picnic areas are wonderful. You can even stay in one place if you choose, setting up a picnic and sledding at one of the dunes there.

Learn about the history and geology of the park. The movie at the Visitor Center is extremely informative, but we also recommend hiking the Dune Life Nature Trail to experience the adaptation first-hand.

Bring your furry friend! If it's feasible, bring your dog along on your White Sands adventures. It's like a pet-friendly beach! Just be sure that it's not too hot, and you pack plenty of water for both you and your dog. This is another reason we'd recommend driving your RV through the park. You can have food and water on board, and your dog can retreat to a place of comfort after all the adventuring.

While it's certainly possible to spend just a day at White Sands, we're glad we had extra time to dive deeper into the wonders of this National Park. If we had only gone our first day, we would have felt a little let down. This was mostly due to our mistake of treating the park like many others we have visited. We usually prioritize hiking, ebiking, and scenic drives. Now we know that White Sands needs to be a much more hands-on, immersive visit. Now that you know, you can make a one-day trip count. However, if you have extra time to spend in the area, there is plenty to enjoy in White Sands that can fill a multi-day trip.

In addition to the National Park, the city of Alamogordo boasts other fun attractions. Oliver Lee Memorial State Park is worth a visit to learn about the life and death of Oliver Lee, a rancher and government official who brought civilization to Alamogordo and the Tularosa Basin through a railroad and irrigation system. You can also learn about the plant and animal species found in the park (tarantulas, anyone?). The state park also offers tours of a restored version of Lee's ranch (the tour was not running when we visited), and you can see the ruins of the dwelling of Francois Rochas, who was another pioneer in the area. If you choose to camp here, even better. The campsites have gorgeous views of the basin and mountains.

If you're a space enthusiast, Alamogordo houses the New Mexico Museum of Space History and the International Space Hall of Fame. If you're into Native American History, you can find petroglyph sites nearby. We only had a few days to spend in Alamogordo, and so we chose our attractions carefully. There is one more that we will share with you, but that will have to wait until our next blog post, because we'd be nuts to try and fit it all here.

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