From Carlsbad, we headed northwest, stopping at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park for an overnight. This lovely campground overlooks the valley below and has great cooking shelters for each campsite and wonderful showers! Big plus for us!
The next day we headed out to spend the morning at White Sands National Monument. The dunes here are made of gypsum, which looks like snow when you first see it. It is firmer than other kinds of sand, which makes it a perfect spot for some sand sledding! We stopped off at the Visitor’s Centre and for a small fee, were able to purchase a dish sled and some wax that we would be able to sell back when we left the park.
Heading out into what looks like a winter wonderland was such a surreal experience! As we drove further into the park, we left behind the paved road and were driving on the gypsum sand. It seemed as if we should be careful of the ice, but that was just our Canadian brains telling us we were somewhere else. Actually, I’m not sure how slick the sand is – I’m sure you could do donuts, but then, I’m sure you would get asked to leave if you drove like that! After all, this is a National park! We passed by dunes with lots of grasses growing and finally reached the area where there was just miles and miles of empty sand dunes. We parked the van and grabbed the sled, heading up one dune and sliding down, one after the other. Oh man, was this ever fun!!!! No cold, no snow down your neck, just refreshing sand! The only thing we had to be careful of was keeping track of where we were parked – you wouldn’t want to loose your way out here, believe me!
After sledding to our heart’s content, we headed back, stopping to check out some of the other sights in the park. We noticed that there is backcountry camping here. I can’t even imagine how cool it would be to camp way out in this amazing place and see the stars at night. However, for this trip, we just enjoyed our day trip in. We stopped in at the Visitor’s Centre to take back the sled and wax before enjoying a picnic lunch and heading north towards Santa Fe, but that’s another blog entry!
