When I arrived in White Sands National Monument in southern New Mexico in March 2005 it was the first time I had ever set foot in a national park property in the USA. I had arrived, having driven 2,500 miles from my home in Vermont, to spend three months as an interpretive intern, recruited by the Student Conservation Association (SCA).
I’ve never looked back!
Imagine 275 square miles of fine white sand rising and falling in dunes up to 60 foot high as far as the eye can see. Some of the dunes are cloaked in vegetation: shrubs, ground plants, cacti and soaptree yuccas rearing their prickly daggers and creamy white blossoms toward a cloudless desert sky.
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| White dunes sail over a silent sea |
Some dunes are completely bare of vegetation – these are dunes in motion, shifting sometimes several feet in a year, swamping the road that represents the park service’s attempt to allow people to penetrate and enjoy this magical landscape.
Pause on top of one of those open dunes. Stoop down to pick up a handful of sand, soft as soap bubbles and let the wind whip it out of your hand. Remove your shoes and socks and wriggle your toes down into the enveloping coolness of the gypsum crystal sand.
Scour the dune for fragments of the Selenite crystals that erode to from this sand, or visit Lake Lucero (accessible on ranger program only) to see the layers of crystal that were used by the goddess Selene for the window panes of her lunar palace.
Later, as the sun sinks a cloud of crimson and gold, sit on top of that dune and bathe in the warm evening air laden with the sweet scent of sand verbena.
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| Stinkbugs enjoy the sand verbena, (Abronia villosa) too. |
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| No ocean in sight, but White Sands offers a seaside vacation atmosphere |
