Day 18: White Sands National Monument

 

We  left Carlsbad at 8:25 this morning and arrived at the White Sands National Monument around lunchtime.  It is located in a mountain ringed valley known as the Tularosa Basin which is at the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert on Route 70 going north out of Carlsbad.  The great wave-like dunes of "white sand" is actually gypsum and encompasses 275 square miles which is the largest gypsum dune field in the world.  

 

There is a 16 mile road winding through part of the dunes...half of the road is paved and the other half is hard-packed gypsum.  So, we decided to get a closer look.  While George unhooked the car, Pat and I packed a picnic lunch.

 

Tom on the sand dune

Tom was anxious to touch the glistening sand so he kicked off his flip-flops and hiked to the top of a sand dune.  We coaxed him back to the picnic table then, after a fun lunch, George, Pat and I took our turn. It felt just like sand, for a minute, I thought I was in Gulf Shores!   

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We pulled into our campground, Hacienda RV Resort in Las Cruces, NM in the late afternoon.  What a nice place!  We will be here for 2 days - Whoopee!

TOTAL MILES DRIVEN:  2,190