We’ve seen so many beautiful places on this road trip, but the one place that brought me to tears was White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.
On the drive there, the landscape is grassy and flat. As soon as I start doubting this place is even there, sure enough bright white piles of sand start appearing. Once driving into the park, what was a bright blue sky now becomes enveloped in blowing white sand blowing and endless white dunes.
It didn’t seem like it could really be true, but anywhere off of the main loop you’re allowed to run up the dunes, roam where you’d like, and sled down, jump down, skip down… no matter how old you are you turn back into a little kid. In the gift shop you can buy new or used sleds. We got there too late to get a used one, but the new one was about $16, and you can sell it back to the shop at the end of the day for $5. However, it closes at 6p and we were having way too much fun to get back there before then. We ended up just leaving our sled outside of the gift shop.
The day we were there was in the 80s, but the sand doesn’t get hot at all. In fact, the sand is cool to the touch since it’s made of gypsum salt. It’s incredibly soft. We ditched our shoes and just ran around barefoot.
We felt like we were on another planet. I truly didn’t want to leave.
| Photos by Rich and Sara Combs |
