Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Happy 54th anniversary Nannie and Poppa!!!
Today we are driving to White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.
The largest gypsum dune field in the world is located at White Sands National Monument in south-central New Mexico. This region of glistening white dunes is in the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert within an “internally drained valley” called the Tularosa Basin. The monument ranges in elevation from 3890′ to 4116′ above sea level. There are approximately 275 total square miles of dune fields here, with 115 square miles (about 40%) located within White Sands National Monument. The remainder is on military land that is not open to the public. This dune field is very dynamic, with the most active dunes moving to the northeast at a rate of up to 30 feet per year, while the more stable areas of sand move very little. The pure gypsum (hydrous calcium sulfate) that forms these unusual dunes originates in the western portion of the monument from an ephemeral lake or playa with a very high mineral content. As the water evaporates (theoretically as much as 80″ per year!), the minerals are left behind to form gypsum deposits that eventually are wind-transported to form these white sand dunes. Many species of plants and animals have developed very specialized means of surviving in this area of cold winters, hot summers, with very little surface water and highly mineralized ground water.
https://www.newmexico.org/places-to-visit/regions/southeast/white-sands-national-monument/
Driving in
What’s really odd is that you can tell plows have come through and pushed up the sand off the roads…just like they do with snow.
You just drive in and pick a dune, park and go sliding!
Not just sliding, jumping too.
Yes, they got me on the sled too…
Audrah
or rolling…
Or chilling
Creative way to carry your sled back up the dune
Night sky starting
Saw a bride and groom getting their photos taken on the dunes
Driving out
Only thing missing was the beach water to wash off the sand. We all headed to the showers at our campground though.
Who,but God, could create such beauty for so much fun! Go, girl! My Suzie sledding:-)