WHITE SANDS

White Sands, Big Skies 

White Sands National Park is one of America’s newest national parks, upgraded from national monument status in the fall of 2019. Established in 1936, the 275-square-mile gypsum dunefield was one of the granddaddies of the national monument system. Located in the heart of the Tularosa Basin near Alamogordo, NM, it is nearly surrounded by the White Sands Missile Range and next to Holloman Air Force Base.

Hikers follow red trail markers across the sifting dunes and tourists sled down the dunes on disks. The dunes are a natural wonder of flora and fauna; some 220 species of birds migrate through each year and some birds, like the hardy cactus wren, are year-round residents. 

Gypsum is used in a variety of ways, from Plaster of Paris, to medicines, insecticides, fertilizers, paint and plaster board, to name a few. It was cost prohibitive to transport heavy gypsum from remote White Sands for industrial use, so the dunefield remains today as it has for eons. 

White Sands National Park is also located about 70 miles south of the Trinity Site, which was Ground Zero for the first test of the Atom Bomb. Heat from that explosion fused the surrounding gypsum sand into glassy rock the scientists named “Trinitite.”

I spent several days in January 2017 chasing the light across the dunes from morning until twilight.