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White Sands Natl Monument NM

White Sands National Monument is about an hours drive from Las Cruces at the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert. This is some of the strangest land you'll ever see: an ocean of rolling white sand dunes, in some places so pure you feel you’re lost in a giant salt shaker, in others stalks of lone yucca shoot up out of the wind-etched sand, like alien sentinels in a Frank Herbert novel. The largest gypsum dune field in the world, it occupies 300 square miles of soft white sand, the dunes rising and changing with the prevailing winds--all surrounded by the desert of the Tularosa Basin and flanked by the Sacramento and San Andres mountain ranges.

The Tularosa Basin was formed with the uplifting of the Rocky Mountains (70 million years ago) and the subsequent settling of the Tularosa "crust" into a drainless basin. Over the eons, rainfall washed gypsum from the mountainsides, and the winds broke it up into grains of sand. This process is still occurring, and as a result, the dunes are still changing.

The 16-mile loop through the park passes through the dunes in all their various stages--some are relatively flat, supporting significant plant life; others are 60 feet high, with nothing growing in or on them. In some places, deep in.the heart of the dunes, you can see nothing but the pure white of the driven sand.

Vistors , come with your beach buckets, shovels, umbellales and picnic baskets.You feel that you are on a coastal beach without water or snow that your feet don't get cold, or wet. There are numerous wayside exhibits at pullouts along the drive that provide information about the natural history of the park.

The visitors center, at the beginning of the loop, offers a fascinating introduction to the formation and history of the dunes, as well as to the plants and animals that live among the them: spadefoot toads, hognose snakes, kangaroo rats, cactus wrens, ocotillo, cholla, and yucca. Wander around and see what your can identify the plants and animals. A must to see, if you are traveling in the southwest.

White Sands Missle Range

Located just on the east side of the Organ Mountains is the U.S. Army White Sand Missile Range and installation.The range boundaries extend almost 100 miles north to south by 40 miles east to west. At almost 3,200 square miles the range is the largest military installation in the country and could easily encompass the states of Delaware and Rhode Island. Most of the missiles now and outdated ones were designed, modified and tested here. Signs warn visitors to remain on the road to the facility due to possible unexploded ordinance in the area. With a guest pass vistors are allowed to look at the missile museum located near the main gate.