Imagine looking in all directions, seeing white for as far as you can see. Despite the cold wind whipping your face and tangling your hair, the endless white is not snow. In fact, despite its name, it isn’t even sand. It’s gypsum. You slip your shoes and socks off and stick your feet in the powdery soft stone. The whole experience plays with your senses as the texture that you are playing with between your toes is much softer and cooler than sand. Gypsum, unlike sand, doesn’t absorb heat so it stays a pretty constant cool temperature yea-round.
Just as your body starts to understand the different senses, your eyes are met with another bizarre sight … could it be children sledding … on sand?!
Tucked inside a sleepy little town in New Mexico, White Sands National Park is home to the world’s largest gypsum dunefield. The city of Alamogordo is tucked in the shadow of mountains, about an hour and a half from El Paso, Texas. Unlike some National Parks, the Visitor’s Center at White Sands is planted before the entrance to the park so that all visitors can gear up. The Visitor’s Center sells sleds for about $25; I think there is a $5 discount for used sleds (if they have any). We were pretty lucky to find a family who was leaving that sold us our two sleds for $20 To enjoy sledding on the gypsum, you also need to purchase wax. The more you wax your sled, the smoother your ride. Our campsite had a glorious mountain view from the front of our trailer. Every time Ginny and I spent time in the off-leash dog area, we basked in the beauty. The view from my rear bedroom window was of the Walmart parking lot. There’s tons of fencing there, so it still felt very safe. We were advised to buy sleds and wax at Walmart, but sadly, they were out of sleds. On our last day, we sold our sleds to another family for $15 because there’s just not enough room in the RV to store two sleds.
It’s about a 7-10 minute drive from the visitor’s center back to the areas where you can sled. While the path starts out paved, you quickly start driving on the compacted “sand;” it kind of feels like driving on a beach. We frequented the park multiple times, and the kids had a blast sledding. I even gave it a try; it was thrilling! The park is also dog friendly and Ginny had a blast. Sand is one of her favorite things – digging, rolling around, and frolicking with the kids.
On our last evening at the park, we went on a ranger led sunset hike. I used Ginny’s old retractable leash that doesn’t latch properly due to sand getting in it circa our 2020 travels. The alternate leash coupled with her abundant excitement over the sand made walking very challenging for her. She darted from one end of the leash to the other, completely dysregulated. Unfortunately, it made it difficult for John and I to hear everything the ranger shared. Lesson learned. The kids, on the other hand, stayed in the front and savored every story.
The area where the park now stands is called the Tularosa Basin and has been inhabited for at least 10,000 years. There is evidence of some marvelous creatures living in this area during the Ice Age. Prior to the dunes, there was a giant lake in the area, Lake Otero. There are fossilized footprints indicating that Giant Sloths populated this area. Giant Sloths were approximately ten feet tall, weighing as much as a small car. In addition to Giant Sloths, the area was home to Saber-Tooth tigers, Mammoths, wolves, lions, and camels. Other fossilized footprints tell us that a woman carried a toddler across the muddy lake banks. Can you imagine the dangers humans faced with the variety of predators living in this area? Even the Giant Sloth, an herbivore, had dangerous claws.
Our guided hike ended on top of a dune where we could watch as the sun receded from the sky. The kids thought it was ironic that they earned two junior ranger badges from dune sites in the same year (we visited the Indiana Dunes in September).
Other adventures in the White Sands Area
The World’s Largest Pistachio: A Nutty Day
For miles, billboards announce the must-see traveler’s destination of McGinn’s Pistachioland. The billboards reminded me of the South of the Border signs along 95 on the east coast. Since we enjoyed the touristy giggles of Roswell so much, we decided to stop at Pistachioland … except, I was distracted, talking to Kaeli in the car and turned too early. We ended up at the Heart of the Desert, another pistachio farm several miles from Pistachioland. We ended up going in and sampling pistachios and some yummy, flavored vinegars before I realized we were in the wrong place. After a quick trip up the road, we landed at Pistachioland. They have a large statue that one of the owner’s children eventually erected to honor his father. It’s a great photo op. Pistachioland has free tours of the farm regularly, but we skipped this. Pistachioland is extremely dog friendly and Ginny really loved hanging out at the help yourself pistachio tasting station in the middle of the store because she scouted out all the scraps.
The store is large and well organized. Several of the employees handed Ginny dog bones; they really made her feel so welcome! There is a bar for sampling their wines made from grapes harvested on their land. I ended up purchasing a bottle of pistachio infused wine, seeking the amazing flavors in a bottle of Pistachio wine that I bought in Sicily. It didn’t have the same rich, sweet flavors, but was light with a subtle hint of nuttiness instead. After choosing some pistachios to buy, we made our way outside to the ice cream stand. Ginny got the most adorable complimentary pup cup with a doggy bone on top.
Space Museum: Ham in Space
One day while Ginny was sniffing around the off-leash dog area, a full timer who lived at the RV park brought his dog out to chat with me. He recommended visiting The Museum of Space History. I didn’t really understand everything he was telling me, but he was quite the talker and I needed to get back, so I didn’t ask many questions.
Our furnace was supposed to arrive on Wednesday. It got delayed repeatedly, to the point where we were hanging around on a Saturday with nothing to do, having already turned in our sleds at White Sands. I decided the Space Museum would be a good use of our time. While I definitely wouldn’t travel here for the space museum, it was a nice add on and enjoyable afternoon.
I also felt really good about my kids’ homeschool education. My kids actually recognized most of the references to space, important events/places around the world, and famous people. There was a ton that I wasn’t even aware they knew! We recently watched Apollo 13 in preparation for a visit to the Houston Space Center (that was delayed to the end of our trip due to our snafu in Defuniak Springs), plus they’ve visited the Smithsonian Air and Space museum, Goddard Space Center, and the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center. I guess all this hands-on learning really does pay off!
The New Mexico Museum of Space History dubs the area the “cradle of America’s space program.” Some of our highlights included learning about the “fastest man alive,” and Ham the astrochimp.
In 1954, Dr. John Paul Stapp rode in a rocket-propelled sled at White Sand Missile base reaching speeds of 632 mph in five seconds. The goal of this experiment was to learn more about g-force and what these types of conditions do to the human body. This research led to better safety restraints in cars and the space program building adequate human restraints and conditions in future space flights (for re-entry into our atmosphere).
The kids were amazed to learn about Ham, the astrochimp. He was put through many of the types of experiences that astronauts today complete as part of their training and learned how to respond to different commands, pushing levers and changing things based on input from mission control during flights. He flew a Mercury space capsule in 1961, paving the road for humans. Part of the mission was testing on life support systems. The kids didn’t like this part very much, but were mesmerized by the news footage of Ham, happily being strapped in before his flight. I cannot imagine how terrifying that journey must have been for Ham.
White Sands Missile base was first built as an overseas training facility for the British; however, these plans were diverted within months when Pearl Harbor was attacked. The facility has a history of being the number one testing facility of missiles and bombs. In July 1945, a nuclear bomb was detonated in the desert of the White Sands Missile base for research purposes. The chemical fall out caused some of the gypsum in the area to turn green.
One exhibit at the museum simulated the vibrations of various missile launches. There was a vibration metal plate to stand on that shook with different impacts depending on the missile chosen. The kids really loved trying on spacesuits and making land rovers from construction sets. All in all, a fun day at the space museum.
Slowly … Onward
Our furnace finally arrived late Saturday. As we had already rescheduled our day trip to Mexico once and didn’t want to forego the trip, we took Sunday to ourselves and had the mobile repairman come Monday morning. He had to commute from El Paso, then remove the old furnace before installing a shiny new one. The holes in the furnace were bizarre! He said that it was just a factory defect that likely wasn’t discovered since many people don’t use their furnaces a lot in RVs. The installation took longer than expected, so we were pretty late hitting the road towards Arizona.
If I haven’t mentioned it before, I’m going to leave you with a piece of wisdom that my father imparted on me: ALWAYS get the extra insurance! While insurance won’t cover everything, every little bit helps in these types of situations … but maybe you’ve already learned this lesson via my tails of Dennis and his car warranty.
Oh, and that furnace? It really came in hand over the next week of freezing weather and snow. Brrr. In Riley’s words, “I thought we left New Hampshire so that we would stay warm this winter.”