Day 8 - Mar 31 White Sands National Monument, Junior ranger badge 8

Seemed like it was going to be a good day today to get out and explore the White Sands dunes, turned out it was.

We headed out to the park fairly early by our standards. Stopped off at the visitors center to pick up the Junior Ranger packet and the obligatory sand sled and headed for the dunes.

The dunes here are primarily made up of gypsum and are a sugary white. They would make any ocean beach blush with shame. The gypsum from the surrounding mountains dissolves in the rain runoff which makes its way to the two lakes that comprise the runoff basin. There is no outlet for the water so it collects in the two lakes. Then the summer comes along and evaporates the average of 10" they get a year. The resulting minerals that remain are what eventually make up the dunes of White sands. The relentless wind pulverizes the fragile mineral until it becomes the sugary sand dunes we slide down today.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that we did not have to walk the 3/4 mile of so to the dunes as we had at the Great Sand Dunes National Park. In this park they had plowed a road out through a section of the dunes where we found covered picnic tables set up about 50' from a usable dune. I suppose they will need to move the tables in a year or so, else they will get covered.

The dunes here are not near as high as those at the Great Sand Dunes, which I suppose is why it's called the "Great" sand dunes. But adequate for a four year old. Unfortunately the sleds are plastic and not really designed for adults. Both of us big people tried of course but we seemed to slide down slower than walking up, the plastic deformed and we just did not move much,

We had to call it a fairly early day as the wind started kicking up and none of us were interested in seeing the inner workings of a sand storm, no matter how tame it was.

Back to the park station to complete the Junior Ranger requirements. Rosalie was sworn in and received her 8th ranger badge.

A late dinner at a local Mexican restaurant rounded out another great day on the road.