(and Professional Travelers)
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White Sands, New
Mexico |
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you will find photos and some history of the White Sands. The sand is
much whiter than the pictures show. At the bottom of this page
you will find two sub-menus to see photos of The Space Mural, and more-
not to be missed, plus some special photos from White Sands. |
White
Sands National Monument |
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West of Alamogordo, a vast area of desert and mountain ranges 100 by 40 miles in extent is closed to public access and used by the military for various kinds of weapons testing; this includes the Trinity Site where the first atomic bomb was detonated in July 1945. The other feature of interest in this otherwise desolate and un-welcoming land is 60 miles south in the flat Tularosa Basin - here, for thousands of years the prevailing westerly winds have deposited gypsum powder - formerly eroded from the nearby San Andres Mountains, washed down by rainwater and deposited in the seasonal Lake Lucero, a few miles southwest - creating a huge area of white dunes covering 275 square miles. About half of the sands are within the boundaries of the White Sands National Monument, one of the most unusual and magical places in the Southwest. |
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| The main road past White Sands National Monument is US 70; this (and the dunes) is closed to all traffic for a few hours once or twice a week as test missiles are fired overhead. A paved road leads from the visitor center at the monument entrance on US 70 to the start of the sands 2 miles north. The edge dunes are just a few meters high and support some plant life, with various species of grass, yucca and saltbush managing to survive at scattered points. Further into the monument there is little or no vegetation, just unbroken white landscape. The road is paved for a while although blowing sand often covers the surface; towards the centre though, the surface is just compacted gypsum, and the 'road' becomes a series of large cleared areas, which can be adapted to changes in dune position - they move by up to 20 feet per year. In this surreal environment, everything is white, dazzlingly bright and intensely hot in summer, capped on most days by a clear blue sky. | |
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ABOVE:
Karen Duquette and Carole Gerig get ready to View the white sands. |
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LEE JUST
HAD TO FEEL HOW HARD THIS SAND WAS |
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Carole
& Jerry Gerig and Karen Duquette (Jerry named Karen "the Lightning Bug" because of her bright colors) |
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Jerry Gerig
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| Karen "the
lightning bug" |
LOOKING DOWN A SAND
CLIFF |
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Karen &
Lee Duquette - the two RV Gypsies |
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a sign
about animals in the dunes - and some kind of animal tracks in the sand |
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FOR
MORE PHOTOS at WHITE SANDS