Blinding White

White Sands, New Mexico---The drive from Roswell to Phoenix was going to be 10 hours, already a very long day. But I had promised myself that I would stop if anything along the way looked interesting. I got a lot more than that at White Sands National Memorial. I had just driven past the US Missile testing fields and the white was nearly blinding.  When I saw a chance for the public to experience it I pulled over and was thinking it would be a 20 minute stop at the most. For a $5 entrance fee, you can drive into the sand dunes for an 8 mile path. The first part is paved and the final area is like a road base but the blowing sand makes it hard to see exactly where the road is at times.

I was mesmerized. It seemed un-ending. Dunes about 30-40 feet high rolled across the land as far as you could see. 275 square miles are engulfed by these dunes and are one of the world’s great national wonders. Kids had round disk sleds and were riding down the sides like it was snow, only it was 91 degrees out.

Three men with horses had trailered to the area and were atop the galloping trio that made for a great silhouette against the pure white background.

White Sands is world’s largest gypsum dunefield. It was officially declared a national monument by President Herbert Hoover January 18, 1933.  Gypsum was formerly selenite crystals that, it is said, was deposited at the bottom of a shallow sea covering the area 250 million years ago. Gypsum is rarely found as sand because it is water soluble. The dunes drift and move with the wind. Dome dunes can move 30 feet a year.  The same gypsum deposits were discovered on Mars and some veins were discovered by the rover in 2011 that made the geologist pretty excited about the prospect of water having been there to create it.

Sure it was interesting but more so, there was something really peaceful and tranquil about standing on top of a dune and looking at the expanse of them all around.  

15 minutes? Never. An hour went by and I could have easily stayed longer.