White Sands National Park

White Sands National Park is one of our newest national parks. It was established as a national monument in 1933 and re-designated as a national park in 2019. This was just a half-hour down the road from Organ Mountains-Desert National Monument and couldn’t feel more different, with white gypsum sand.

I was so happy that Zeke was welcome to explore the dunes with me. It was absolutely lovely. Zeke slipped away from me as we were getting out of the van, leash dragging behind him, and he ran way off. Thankfully, he went right to a dog-loving family, and they kept him safe. From then on, I started attaching the leash to me, as well as him. While he usually sticks with me, open dunes and beaches are just too tempting.

You can experience White Sands in a couple of hours. It is very small as far as national parks go, but well worth a stop!

Closeup of Zeke (cream golden retriever) on a white sand dune.

Closeup of the white sand with ripples from the wind

Wide landscape with blue sky, dunes with ripples, and a pair of footprints

Dried up plant with pods emerging from a sand dune, with blue sky

Grasses popping out of the white sand, with gentle ripples left by the wind

Zeke laying down in the sand as the sun starts to wane, with blue sky turning pink

Wide landscape in the evening light with mountains in the distance and with dunes and grasses closer

Zeke sitting for a portrait on the white sand as the sky turns purple and pink

Wide landscape with an orange sky and the dunes and mountains turning purple

Sun goes down over the mountains, creating a vibrant orange sky

While I had great hopes of capturing the full moon over the dunes, there was just a bit too much of a gap between sunset and the moon rise to do it justice. But it was beautiful and such a treat to be there.

We spent the night down the road at a KOA campground in Alamogordo, NM, since we were going to be out past dark, and it was time to do laundry, take a shower, and clean/reorganize the van.