White Sands National Park

Trip Details:

Where: White Sands National Park

Campsite: KOA Alamogordo/White Sands RV Park (spot 31) 

Length: 2 days

Itinerary:

Day 1 - Travel Day - Rested and saw a White Sands National Park sunset

Day 2: White Sands National Park

Highlights:

Paige: Loved sledding down the sand dunes!

Charlotte:  Loved seeing the sunset!

Mary: Enjoyed the sunset while the 5 kids were running around and rolling down the sand dunes! 

Aaron: Surprised to feel how cold the sand was under the top layer!

Surprise, surprise! The Gurley’s didn’t have any camper issues on this leg of the trip! Woo Hoo! On our drive from Carlsbad to White Sands, we diverted to Roswell, NM. I might be the only person who didn’t know about this odd city. Katie told me I should watch the show…. still need to add it to my list! But Roswell was, in a word, green. While there, we enjoyed some shamrock shakes, to keep with the green theme!

After setting up camp and making a quick and delicious shrimp fried rice for dinner on the blackstone (thanks for the recipe, Atyes!), we headed into White Sands National Park to enjoy the sunset. And the word gorgeous doesn’t do it justice. It was magical. The sand was cold, the winds were breezy and the colors were intense. As always, our pictures don’t do it justice.  

This might be my new favorite national park. It was such a unique and surprising park. I’ve always said that each park has its reason, but WOW. Miles of white gypsum rolling sand dunes with a blue mountain range in the background. Weather was perfect and the kids had a blast sledding and snowboarding down the dunes for day 2! 

After the kids were worn out, we enjoyed a picnic lunch and then buried them in the cool sand  to end our time at the park. This was park #30 for us! Almost halfway there!

There were a couple of trails that we chose to pass on. Three hours of sledding wore everyone out and to be honest, these “trails” aren’t really trails. You go from sign to sign to make sure you don’t get lost. This warning sign was a little discerning, so we were okay on passing on any hikes through this park.  

We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying this fun KOA. The pool is seasonal, and not open in March, but they had a fun playground, and for $5, we rented these fun pedal carts for them to zoom around the park! Also, in proper form, we watched the movie Dune in honor of the national park. Homeward bound! 

Until next time…

Mary