My visit to White Sands National Park was part of a week-long road trip to 3 national parks in the southwest near El Paso, Texas – including Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe Mountains. Each of these NPs can be well covered in a day or two, and I found that joining them together for a travel week in early April before the onset of summer’s heat made for a fun and rewarding itinerary. I began at White Sands and added a day of short hikes in Lincoln National Forest, followed by a day at Carlsbad and two at Guadalupe.
White Sands NP is situated in the world’s largest gypsum dunefield and can easily be a terrific one-day national parks adventure. It is co-located with the White Sands Missile Range in the Tularosa Basin of the Chihuahuan Desert of southern New Mexico. White Sands became a National Monument in 1933 (upgraded to National Park in 2019), a decade before the testing of the first atomic bomb took place nearby. The Basin is relatively flat, lying between the San Andreas and Sacramento Mountains, and is an enormous expanse – larger than my home state of Connecticut!
Hiking the Alkali Flat Trail
The park’s trails are all accessed from Dunes Drive, an 8-mile road which terminates at the trailhead of the Park’s signature trail, the Alkali Flat Trail. This 4.9-mile loop trail rambles over and around dunes reaching over 100 feet high; it is not “flat”, as the name suggests. The Trail itself is not a path in the traditional sense. Rather, it consists of a series of red fiberglass stakes placed about 100 metres apart from one another. You decide how to get from one marker to the next one.
My hiking buddy and good friend Sandy and I learned that a straight line is usually not the easiest path, given how the dunes undulate. I think we all know how challenging it can be to walk up a steep sand dune, with each step forward followed by a half-slide back, if you “get my drift.”
There is a stark beauty to the hike. It feels a bit surreal, wading through a sea of sand, dune after dune, toward the distant San Andreas mountains. The white sands look like snow, matching the actual snow-capped peaks in the distance. And you are truly blazing your own trail, as the wind-blown sands constantly erase footprints and reset the dunes’ surface throughout the day.
Tips: Do the hike early in the day to avoid afternoon winds and summer heat. Trail instructions posted everywhere implore hikers to turn back if windblown sands obscure the next marker. Visitors have become lost and died here from dehydration/exposure. Also, do not walk barefoot on the gypsum even though it is cool to the touch – your feel will soon find it too dry and abrasive.
Interdune Boardwalk Trail & Sledding
There are several other trails, all very short, and that’s it at White Sands. We enjoyed the Interdune Boardwalk Trail, a 0.4 mile out-and back, which offers a number of trailside exhibits of desert flora and fauna. But the popular alternative activity is Sledding. Turns out, gypsum is great for sledding as these particles, firmer than beach sand, prevent your sled from sinking in. We learned that plastic saucers are best, especially if they’ve been waxed on their bottom, because gypsum is not particularly slippery.Tip and Fun Fact: You can purchase used or new sleds for $20-25 along with wax at the visitor center.
Sandy, and I were Grinches and did not participate but joined the ranks of active spectators cheering on others of all ages. A fun time was had by all!
Tip and Fun Fact: You can purchase used or new sleds for $20-25 along with wax at the visitor center.
Cloudcroft and Lincoln National Forest – A Great Side Trip
We chose to stay in a VRBO in the hamlet of Cloudcroft, further away from White Sands than the logical nearby city of Alamogordo, which appears a little tired. Situated in Lincoln National Forest, Cloudcroft is perched nearly a mile above the Tularosa Basin, about a 45-minute drive. We chose to hike the convenient, short trails of this Forest the day after our White Sands visit, and this experience — among towering pine, spruce, and fir amidst the vestiges of winter snow –was a cool counterpoint to the gypsum dunes of the previous day.
Alamogordo & Sacramento Mountain Railroad
Cloudcroft flourished, after the ground-breaking Alamogordo & Sacramento Mountain Railroad was completed in 1900, as a locale to escape the summer desert heat and enjoy restorative cool, clean air. The railroad climbed 4,000 feet over a 32-mile span at an average grade of 5.2%, employing 122 wooden box bridges and 58 timber-frame trestles. At the time, the railway was the world’s highest standard-gauge, and was dubbed the “cloud-climbing route” because at its altitude of 8,700 feet the train often passed through the clouds. With the advent of autos and a roadway up to Cloudcroft, the railroad closed in 1947.
Hiking the Cloud-Climbing Trestle Trail and More
Sandy and I hiked in the nearby Trestle Recreation Area of the Forest along the Cloud-Climbing Trestle Trail and several other short ones, all of which offered panoramic views of the valley and a nearby trestle. Further down the road outside of Cloudcroft, we found another forest trail, the 2.5-mile loop Osha Trail, which likewise offered excellent views from a fragrant evergreen forest.
The VRBO house outside of Cloudcroft was true to its rural locale. On our drive there, we passed groups of wild horses and elk – a half dozen of the latter grazing in the front yard of our rental. In the early light next morning, we noted that a former member of the elk gang had met its maker.
Tip: For dinner, the Cloudcroft Brewery is a winner, offering excellent pizzas and brews. Highly recommended. Being afficionados of Mexican cuisine – we also tried the “World Famous” burritos of the Allsup’s chain, which was new to us. Our Take: not so bad on the palate but rather rough on the lower intestines. I’ll leave it at that.
In Summary: White Sands NP can easily be explored in one day, but start early to avoid the heat and afternoon winds. Don’t miss the Alkali Flat Trail and enjoy the sledding! It’s an unusual national park adventure that should be experienced for any outdoor enthusiast! For more details on this trip and other adventures, check out my itineraries.
Carpe Diem!
