White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

After leaving the Carlsbad Caverns, I must admit, I did NOT expect it to take another 4 hours to get to the White Sands. It looked so short on the map… But off I went!

The drive to the White Sands went close along the Mexican boarder, and I had to go through a couple inspection stops. It was like in the movies! They had dogs and a laundry list of questions they went through, including: “are you an American citizen?” I guess my New Jersey license plate didn’t give it away.

I arrived at the White Sands National Monument around 4:00 PM and started the 16 mile loop through the sand dunes. When I got out of the car for the first time, I was hesitant to take my shoes off since the sand looked so hot! But it wasn’t… This was better than the Navarre Florida beach, it felt like COLD whipped cream. The sand was cold because it is made of gypsum.

So, here is my quick history lesson on how the dunes formed, since I know you must be dying to know how on earth these white sand dunes found themselves in the middle of New Mexico. Basically, 250 million years ago, the gypsum was deposited at the bottom of a shallow sea and then turned into rock when the Rocky Mountains formed and the sea evaporated. That then created the Tularosa Basin, and the gypsum rock would dissolve when it rained and the wind would break down the gypsum into sand. Ta-da!

As fun as it was to take photos of the white sand dunes, I wanted to try something a little edgier… I wanted to get an awesome shot of myself jumping high above the sand dunes. After about 20 attempts of jumping up and running back and forth to check the shot, I started to feel a little light headed and nauseous, so I retreated back to my air conditioned car and waited until 7:00 pm for the sunset walk.

White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

The sunset walk was guided and just beautiful. Watching the sun set over the white sand dunes with the San Andres Mountains in the background was absolutely magical. After the tour, I walked off and managed to find an isolated dune and just watched as the colors of the sunset in the clouds reflected on the glistening white sand dunes. I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful it was… Check out more pictures here!

Sunset over White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

Around 8:30 PM, although I was so totally tired, I managed the last 2 hour drive to Truth or Consequence where I spent the night.