White Sands

This morning we drove through to White Sands National Monument. It is miles....and miles....and miles of snow white sand dunes in the middle of deserts and mountain ranges. I'll hold off on my understanding of the natural process that went into how, when, what etc caused them-it made the "National Monument" list, and I'm sure the National Parks can do a better job than myself with all the details, so I'll just give my version of the day's adventure. There is an 8 mile road (16 when you circle back) through the dunes, it starts with the sand dunes and all the plants that have adapted to live there, with a few nature walks and board walks that include a LOT of lizards leaping across your path. Another neat feature are all the tracks the animals leave in the sand that you see while you walk. When you drive a little further into the interior the plant life ceases and it's just piles and piles of humongous, pure white, dunes. It's always changing, always moving, and so the park is really gracious about letting anyone and everyone play IN the dunes, which is so much fun. Sure enough (thanks for the advice Maurine), the sand is actually cool to the touch, and you can walk over, through, and around the dunes, OR-if you are young-or young at heart, you can take lids, and boards (gernally used for sledding in snow) and slide down them. The park even sold these trashcan lid looking things you could use-though I didn't have the time-I definitely filed the idea back into my brain. It was a unique adventure worth the stop.