Today we visited a place that I’ve wanted to see for a while. Since we started planning this trip to Ruidoso there was a place on the map just southwest of there indicating a national “monument”. White Sands National Monument is the place I wanted to see.
I didn’t know this but there is a difference between a national monument and a national park.
National monuments, are areas preserved by the National Government because they contain objects of historic, prehistoric, or scientific interest. Generally established by presidential proclamation under authority of Congress, occasionally these areas also are established by direct action of Congress.
National parks, on the other hand, are areas set apart by Congress for the use of the people of the United States generally, because of some outstanding scenic feature or natural phenomena. The principal qualities considered in studying areas for park purposes are their inspirational, educational, and recreational values.
I wish I would have asked if I can fly my drone there but didn’t. The rules for drones are in monuments are the same as parks. It’s still odd to me that they will allow someone to ride a dune buggy in the sand but I can’t fly a drone there. It’s likely I could have applied for a permit but I didn’t think to do that in time but something to think about in the future. Anyway…
Getting there you get a sense that something is different about the place. We came from Ruidoso to White Sands National Monument via SR 70 which, at some point, gives you a bit of a view of the desert then it disappears again as you get closer.
You drive through some pretty countryside but sort of “uninteresting” topology because it looks like everything else you are coming through. There are probably some very nice places there.
We entered the facility from SR 70 into a parking lot where the temperature there was over 100º. You know it’s hot but the heat isn’t as bad as if it were here in Virginia with 90% humidity. It’s drier out there.
We do the obligatory stroll through the very small museum-ish kind of place and then the gift shop were we bought a few small things. Then back in to the car and on into the park we go.
There is a two lane route that takes you into the interior of the park. Initially it just looks like any other desert with yucca plants and such in brown sand. But then it changes to a very high contrast white sand landscape.
We noticed people buying toboggans to “sled” on the dunes which I though was sort of odd. With nothing to erase the sand from you skin and clothes (water) it seems it would be uncomfortable to get that all over your body. Everybody has different entertainment needs. Sand stuck in my nether-regions is not one of mine.
As we get in to the park we notice that people are treating it as a camp site, a place to get some sun (as in a beach with no water), horse trail, dune buggy playground, hiking trail, etc.
I mainly wanted to see the park and I was likely to take a picture or two. I wasn’t prepared for the contrast of bright white sand and blue, blue skies.
Frankly, it’s a bit overwhelming.
It was fun to spend the day with Olivia and Gloria. Our time together seemed to go by too fast. It’s seriously hard to believe but tomorrow we will both be apart again.
I don’t like that.
After our visit to White Sands we headed back to Alto, cleaned up and headed over to the Flying J Ranch for dinner and entertainment. While we were there we took some family pictures.
It’s a motley crew.
The Flying J is good fun. There were some bad guys that came into town that had to be dealt with. Then there was dinner served “chow line” style followed by some music. They served many hundreds of people in 20 minutes. They are very organized there.
We headed on back to the house a little early to pack for the trip home in the morning. Hard to believe the trip is about over.