Spring 2024 Southwestern Swing, 4.01.24 - 5.06.24, Part 3, White Sands National Park

The drive from Carlsbad Caverns National Park to White Sands National Park was only a little over three hours. The route took us through the Sacramento Mountains. Topping out at the town of Cloudcroft, we were at an elevation of 8,700’. There was a little ski area at Cloudcroft and even a few patches of snow on the hillsides. From Cloudcroft it is a steep descent down into the town of Alamogordo, New Mexico. Finding places to stay near the park was limited so we stayed at the Alamogordo KOA which was actually one of the nicer KOAs we’ve stayed at.

Our plan was to photograph White Sands at the sunset hours so we had all day to fill. After a really good burger at BZ Burger, we drove about forty minutes north to Three Rivers Petroglyph Site. Nestled at the base of the Sacramento Mountains, 11,981’ Sierra Blanca rose high above us.

Three Rivers was really incredible. It is mostly a one mile loop trail that climbs a gradual ridge and then doubles back on a parallel track. According to the plaque, there are over twenty thousand petroglyphs scattered throughout the length of this ridge! It was like an Easter egg hunt! Literally every step or two we would see another several petroglyphs. Many were visible right from the trail but if you left the trail and looked on the other side of the rocks there were many more on seemingly every rock. This was serious rattlesnake territory so we kept our eyes and ears on high alert but we never saw any of the cute little critters. Another interesting tidbit was that many of the petroglyphs we saw were unlike any we had ever seen. Squiggly snakes, antelope and target circles are pretty common in a lot of areas, but here were well developed birds, faces and turtles. If you like petroglyphs, this is an easy hike with plenty of things to see!

White Sands National Park is a very interesting place. First of all, the white sand is actually not sand, but gypsum crystals. Apparently back in the day, water washed the soft gypsum from the two opposite mountain ranges, one being the Sacramento Mountains and the other the San Andres Mountains, down into the valley between the two. As the water evaporated it left behind a 275 mile area of gypsum dunes. This is the largest dune field of its kind in the world. The area was established as a National Monument in 1933 and upgraded to National Park status in 2019.

An odd thing about this park is that unlike many National Parks, White Sands is not open twenty-four hours a day. The times slightly vary, but during our stay it opened at 7AM and closed around one hour after sunset. I was very worried about being able to stay out in the dunes as long as I wanted but in the end it worked out fine.

That night the sun was set to set at 8:06PM. I wanted to be there early enough for the golden hour before sunset, but not so early that we would be standing around for hours and hours just waiting for the sun to go down. We ended up leaving at 4:30PM which was a mis-calculation on my part. We also wanted to see the visitor center before heading out to the dunes but it closed at five so we just missed it. The main feature of the park is a 7.6 mile road that takes you into the dune field. It starts out as a paved road but soon gets encroached upon by the white gypsum. It feels like driving on a snow covered road. Like most park dune fields, the closer you are to the road, the more footprints mark up the dunes. I had researched where to get away from all the tracks and also where to find dunes with ridges that ran roughly north/south. This was desirable so that as the sun set it would cast contrasting shades on either side of the dunes.

There were plenty of people all over the dunes along the road. It looked like a big beach party without any water. To get away from all this mayhem, we had to hike further out into the dune field. My research told me that one of the best spots was a very small parking pullout just beyond the parking area for the guided sunset stroll. We found no such pullout. Maybe it was left to be covered in gypsum but we drove the entire length of the road and it just didn’t exist. My second option was to hike something called the Back Country Loop. This is a 1.8 mile loop that is marked with posts sticking out of the dunes. You simply look for a post, hike to it and then look for the next post. Along the way are several back country camp sites, mostly in the lower hard packed valleys between the dunes. To camp there requires a special overnight permit.

We hiked out along the Back Country Loop until we reached the furthest point from the road. Then we simply headed out further and soon enough we were all alone in pristine untracked dunes. For the next couple of hours we wandered aimlessly from dune to dune, finding all sorts of interesting angles. Eventually we found a perch atop a high dune looking out over a sea of untracked dunes with the San Andres Mountains rising above on the western horizon. As the sun sank lower and lower, the light on the brilliant white dunes turned to a softer white and then various shades of blue, pink and orange. As the sun sank below the San Andres Mountains we were treated to a blazing orange sunset, one of the better sunsets I can recall. It was a beautiful evening. Bridgit and I slowly made our way back to the parking lot. There were still tons of people hanging out on the dunes, but while we were out there it felt like we had the place to ourselves. It had been a magical evening.