White Sands National Monument
We spent the day in the white gypsum sand dunes of White Sands National Monument. It was a nice day, a bit cool, but not too much wind. There wasn’t enough wind to blow the sand around.
The dunes are very large, and very white. Surprisingly, they are also very easy to walk on. What water there is here in the New Mexico desert causes the gypsum to solidify (as it is plaster of paris) just below the surface, so in most places only the top one or two inches of sand are loose. Below that it is hard enough to get good footing, so it was quite easy to climb up, especially in the areas where few people have travelled. The more people walk on the sand the more the sub-surface crust breaks down, and so the softer the surface becomes.
Sledding on the dunes, White Sands National Monument
We saw several people sledding on the sand. They sell plastic saucers at the gift shop (and will buy them back when you are finished). You can slide on the dunes, but they aren’t nearly as slippery as snow.
In the central dunes, where the wind causes the most dune movement (up to 30 feet per year) nothing is growing, and the dunes stretch as far as one can see. In the hollow flats there are a few grasses. Around the perimeter where the dunes don’t move so quickly, there are trees and agave plants that accommodate to the shifting sand by growing tall, and using the sub-surface moisture. Then when the sand moves on they may die because they are no longer able to support themselves.