2022 Parks Road Trip Diary: Days 3-4

The name White Sands unsurprisingly captures very well what this park is all about. What I did not expect was the feeling of disorientation when the ground around you in all directions blends into itself in a sea of white. At times it was peaceful, at others unsettling.

Day 3 (continued): arrive at White Sands

We arrived at Oliver Lee State Park after a ~3 hour drive and set up camp in a spot we had reserved. It had such a nice expansive view of New Mexico! Overall the grounds were pretty nice - they had showers!!

campsite at Oliver Lee

We headed right over to White Sands since there was time for a little exploring before dinner. The storm clouds were gathering though, and as we approached we could see rain falling – seemingly directly where we wanted to be.

rain over White Sands

Once we were there the rain had subsided, but some of the scenery it left behind was actually pretty cool.

white clouds + white sands
rainbow!
we took a short hike to explore the dunes

The sand is white because it’s made of gypsum!

After, we headed back to camp for the night. And took advantage of the aforementioned showers. Day 3… I wasn’t even feeling dirty yet!

Day 4: Alkali Flats then onto Bisti Badlands

another great sunrise over the mountains at camp

We packed up camp and drove over to White Sands again for a longer dune hike: Alkali Flats.

Morning at camp was pretty hot — remember, this is New Mexico in late June — so I was worried about the heat of five miles on sand. Fortunately, we had some cloud cover, but we still each drank all of the three or four liters of water we brought.

Five miles was a bit much since the scenery wasn’t very varied, but there were still some cool things about it. For one, you can run down the steep dunes and let yourself slide a bit in each step, making it feel like you’re gliding down the hill.

years of pent-up desire to illegally run on the dunes at the jersey shore, now finally released

Also it’s right next to White Sands missile range. The park actually has to shut down some days when testing happens (next closure was 5 days away!). I guess this is mostly just cool in theory since it’s not like we saw any missiles.

unexploded munitions somewhere out there

After this we hopped in the car and drove 6 more hours to our next campground near the Bisti Badlands!

post originally written 7/6, backdated to match reality