White Sands National Park

Our fourth and last national park on our trip was White Sands National Park. Before this we saw Yosemite, Joshua Tree, and Saguaro. You can read all about our trip across the US here. Back to White Sands, I was very excited to see it as I haven’t been able to experience white sand before.

Accommodation

We spent our night in Alamogordo in “Quality Inn & Suites near White Sands National Park” (that really is the name) which was only 15 minutes from the park entry away. The inn was clean and just enough for our quick stay as we arrived late at night and left early in the morning again.

Time of Travel

We went to see the Park in early August, which is not prime tourist season due to the heat. Temperatures rose to 104°F (40°C) during the day. We made sure we would enter the park no later than 9AM to be finished before the afternoon heat hit. We did a lot of driving inside the park as it still was hot and there was little shade. Whenever we saw an interesting spot we parked, walked on the path for a while and then cooled off in the car again. This time we also only saw a few other people which we really enjoyed.

We thought it was a good time to visit the park in summer. The lack of people makes it a very special visit. Since White Sands are sand dunes there was only so much to see – white sand and a perfectly blue sky…

Amount of time at the park

We spent about 3 hours in White Sands, and we found it to be a perfect amount of time. We got a good idea of the park, the dunes and were able to do a nice photo shooting and got to enjoy without rushing.

General Park Information

White Sands is a field of gypsum sand, and the dunes are ever moving. The first few miles into the park you will have a paved road and lots of shrubbery on the sand. The further in the national park you get the less green you’ll see until it completely vanishes. After the first few miles you will also be driving on the sand. The sand gets moved around with a snowplow and the ground is solid. You can drive with a normal car, no 4x4 needed.

White Sands was actually the site of the first nuclear bomb test. There can still be missile testing happening in the park by the US military. That means the park can be closed for some hours or days. Make sure you check the park website to see if it is open! And don’t worry, the tests these days are non nuclear.

White Sands only became a national park in 2019 which makes it the youngest national park in the US.

During our research about Joshua Tree National Park, we discovered the National Park Service App and I was very grateful we found out about it. The app is great as it allows you to download the map of the park and most of the hikes, trails and activities are visible on the app. Oftentimes you might not have service in the park, so it is super handy to have everything available offline.

The daily entry fee to most the national parks is 25 dollars per vehicle (including passengers). The nice part about it is, this will allow you entry for an entire week. If you are planning on seeing several different parks, the annual pass might be of interest to you. It costs 80 dollars which includes a vehicle, 4 adults and children for all parks in the US.

Activities

We entered the park and first made sure to refill our waters by the visitor center. Then we drove along the street (yes, there is only one street) to the Interdune Boardwalk. It was fun to see the dunes from the boardwalk and to read all the signs and learn more about the park.

Then we kept driving along Dunes Drive, an 8-mile (13km) long road into the park. The entire loop back to the visitor center will take you about 45 minutes to drive. We stopped by several pull overs to take pictures or to explore. We did a longer stop by the Backcountry Camping Loop to check out the sledding area and to take fun photos.

Conclusion

White Sands is definitely worth a visit. Ideally you connect it with a road trip as a drive just to White Sands for a 3-hour stay would be quite long. It is an amazing experience to get to see the glistening sand and the blue sky. Truly a magical place!