2019: I have to update this post to call it White Sands National Park as opposed to Monument. In December of 2019, WSNM became a National Park. I loved this place when we visited 6 years ago. I’m glad we can check this one of our list already :), although I would love to go back and spend more time there.

2013: Another weekend trip. Another national park, but what a little gem of a park. WSNM is located in New Mexico, under two hours of driving from El Paso Airport where we flew in on Saturday morning. It’s the world’s largest gypsum dune field and it felt like it was all ours (the advantage of going there two weeks before Christmas). Gypsum sand is whiter and denser than regular sand and it doesn’t stick to your hands as much.

I couldn’t get enough of the afternoon light which highlighted the ripples, waves and footprints in the sand.

The sunset was amazingly colorful. There was not a whisper of a cloud but the sky color went from blue to orange, to pink, to purple, and back to a deep blue.