One Day in White Sands NP with Kids
One of our priority stops in New Mexico was White Sands National Park. It is something I have always wanted to see, and I wasn’t sure when or if we would be coming back to New Mexico, so I really wanted to make it happen.
Turns out, we fell completely in love with the Land of Enchantment! So we will definitely be back.
Anyway, we had one day to spend in White Sands. We set out from Santa Fe in the morning. We were behind schedule and it has SNOWED- big surprise! I was very nervous driving through the Glorieta Pass due to the snow, but we had a very lovely drive down. It is about 3.5 hours from Santa Fe to White Sands National Park.
We arrived a little later than I had wanted to, which was okay. The family we were traveling with were nervous about things filling up with the crowds that we encountered. We didn’t have to wait long to get in, we stopped briefly at the Visitors Center and then we were on our way. The park is huge, but there aren’t a ton of roads or anything. In fact, there’s pretty much one road. We didn’t encounter traffic, but we did see some full parking lots.
It was an incredible drive in. At first, there’s white sand and plants, and then the road and the plants disappear and you are surrounded by dunes of white sand. It’s incredible!
We found a place to park and began to explore. Something we were very excited about was sledding down the dunes! I had read lots and lots and lots of information regarding the sledding. We had brought a couple sleds, including those slide boards that are very flexible. These were not the best. They worked, but the sand would get caught up. Our friends bought some long plastic sleds and these were great. The best recommendation we found were for saucer sleds. They also recommended wax. The shop was out of wax, and we did just fine without it. I was grateful our friends had brought their sleds!
These dunes were 40-60 feet tall for the majority of what we were sledding. So the trek back up was no joke! I spent a lot of time sitting in the sand. It is not silica sand as many people think. It is selenite basically. It is unlike any sand I have encountered before. The best part is that it just dusts right off with no problem. I imagined we would all be covered and it was really easy clean up! So we took advantage of sitting in, laying on, and experiencing that sand!
My bucket list item was to see the sunset at White Sands. So the sunset hike was top of my list. We played in the sand all afternoon and we wanted to be early to the sunset hike because I had read that the parking lot fills up quick- they were right! We were early so we hung around that area for a while. Then we went on the ranger-led sunset hike. We learned a ton about the formation of the White Sands. The ranger had dug a hole and there was a wood pole in there. You could see that not very deep below us was water! It was very interesting and engaging for both kids and adults!
Nick was sworn in as a junior ranger right there on the hike- a very unusual but special event! He was very proud.
Then the moment we all been waiting for- the sunset! Oh so glorious. We had clear skies, so not a ton of drama from clouds but there was total drama from our surroundings. Definitely in the top ten sunsets I’ve ever seen in my life.
As soon as the sun dropped behind the mountains, the temp dropped a ton! I couldn’t believe how fast it happened. And then we sadly had to make our way out of the park because it closes.
It is located outside of the town of Alamogordo. We stayed there that evening. Inside of the park, there are no services such as food or lodging. The town is really only about ten minutes away from the entrance to the park, so it is okay.
That evening, we got some Mexican food and in the morning, we began our journey home. We had to stop for some souvenirs though- and to see the largest pistachio in the world! Another perk of staying in Alamogordo. 🙂
I am excited to return here soon and share even more that we discover about the park!
**This post have been in draft for nearly a year…. but in preparing for our triumphant return to the Land of Enchantment, I wanted to get this out into the world!