154: Exploring White Sands National Park: Best Tips + Activities

Exploring the National Parks

This episode provides a comprehensive guide to visiting White Sands National Park in New Mexico, covering essential logistics and unique act

Key takeaways

• White Sands is home to the largest gypsum dune field in the world.
• Visitors should check for missile testing schedules as the adjacent range can cause temporary park closures.

Main topics

• White Sands travel logistics
• Sledding tips and equipment

Notable quotes

It's the largest gypsum dune field in the world.

Conclusion

A practical and entertaining guide for anyone looking to experience th

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Right now, Ash and I have a favorite series of commercials, and it's the... The Speaker 2 (0:05) progressive ones? Speaker 1 (0:07) Yes, it's the progressive ones where they say they can't stop you from becoming your parents or whatever. Speaker 2 (0:12) Oh my gosh, the car one, the valet one, is the best. We've watched it so many times, and we still laugh just as heartily every time. Speaker 1 (0:21) Every single time. It's so funny. I think you brought us the wrong car. Ours is the red convertible. Speaker 2 (0:28) Yeah. You Speaker 1 (0:29) know, there's just so many, there's just so many funny ways that I've just like, I laugh at their commercials. I think they're great. The reason I bring it up is because recently I have found that I have become like my parents in a very specific way. Speaker 2 (0:43) Okay. And Speaker 1 (0:45) Ash is doing this as well. So Ash is becoming like my parents too. What? Speaker 2 (0:51) Okay. Speaker 1 (0:52) She had no idea. I Speaker 2 (0:53) had no idea. This is the Exploring the National Parks podcast with Dirt in My Shoes. My name is Ash and I'm a former park ranger and the founder of Dirt in My Shoes. I think that the parks are best seen from the trail and I'm here to make national park trip planning easy. And Speaker 1 (1:11) I'm John. I carry the kids on the trails, tell stories, and notice all the things that Ash doesn't care about much, like flowers. Speaker 2 (1:19) Join us as we show you around America's spectacular national parks. We're Speaker 1 (1:24) sharing our favorite places, fun facts, adventures, and misadventures. And Speaker 2 (1:28) we'll even throw in a little trip planning. Speaker 1 (1:30) Let's start exploring! Speaker 1 (1:36) The way that we are becoming like my parents is we have started shopping and we are getting a lot of joy out of buying discount food. Speaker 2 (1:50) Oh, yeah. Well, so we moved. Actually, I was thinking about this. Funny. We both kind of wanted to share this. Speaker 1 (2:00) But Speaker 2 (2:00) we moved and we moved to a town that has more. bigger factories. I don't want to say factories because it sounds gross. Food Speaker 1 (2:10) manufacturing, big food businesses. Speaker 2 (2:13) Yeah. Speaker 1 (2:14) And the reason that I'm like my parents is because when I was growing up, it's a little bit different. My parents would take me to this store where we could buy food that was like... recently expired, you know, or recently expired yogurts or food that's still good, but probably wouldn't be on your normal shelves at a regular grocery store. They Speaker 2 (2:35) don't sell it at the grocery store. Right. Speaker 1 (2:37) And so my mom would take us there and it would be kind of fun. As a kid, I could get like grapes for two cents each or something. I don't know. Speaker 2 (2:45) You're buying per grape? Speaker 1 (2:47) Yeah, per grape. And anyways, you had Speaker 2 (2:49) to Speaker 1 (2:49) be kind of choosy because some of them were a little rougher than others. But anyways, that was kind of what the store was like. So anyways, now that we moved to this new town, we have one that does like really good cookies. We have one that does ice cream and we have one that has meat. Like all the things that I... The Speaker 2 (3:06) trifecta. Everything Speaker 1 (3:07) I could Speaker 2 (3:08) ask Speaker 1 (3:08) for. And so... We go to each of their outlet stores and we're just buying misshapen cookies. The seconds Speaker 2 (3:19) are amazing. It's Speaker 1 (3:20) so funny. And you never know what you're going to get either. Sometimes you open up the package and it's like an ice cream sandwich with no sandwich or the packaging. Well, Speaker 2 (3:29) that's what happened to our son yesterday. So we were eating these ice cream sandwiches. We opened, we bought a box of seconds. We got 40 for like eight bucks. It was so good. But he opened his package and it was just a block of ice cream. Speaker 2 (3:48) It didn't have any of the sandwich part. And he was like, oh, sweet. That's my favorite kind. And I was like, oh, I would have been so disappointed. Oh, Speaker 1 (3:56) man. And Ash got one. And it was like a double on the bottom and nothing, an open face ice cream sandwich. Yeah. Anyways, it was just, we've been getting a lot of joy buying discounted, damaged and expired food. Speaker 1 (4:12) And so I just thought I would share with that because, and mom, we're becoming more like you every day. It's great. Speaker 2 (4:18) Yeah. Well, we like saving money. Yeah. Speaker 1 (4:21) And Speaker 2 (4:21) you never know. It's like a jack in the box. It is. It's just a surprise every time. Oh man. Funny. So that's a life update on what's going on in our neck of the woods. Speaker 2 (4:34) Today we're talking about White Sands. And what's cool about this national park is that we actually, the first time we went here, it was a national monument. Speaker 1 (4:44) It Speaker 2 (4:45) changed to a national park. I Speaker 1 (4:47) know. It kind of makes me feel like I'm part of a special club. Speaker 2 (4:51) Right? I know. Speaker 1 (4:52) That I was there when it was a monument. Speaker 2 (4:54) Like our Junior Ranger badges and our ornament and everything says... White Sands National Monument. Speaker 1 (5:04) So Speaker 2 (5:05) pretty cool that this one changed to a national park though. I haven't noticed really a difference. Not sure if you could speak into any differences we've noticed since it became a national park. Speaker 1 (5:16) No. Busier Speaker 2 (5:17) probably. Probably a little bit Speaker 1 (5:19) busier but even on the website a lot of the stuff still says monument. Yeah. Like they haven't even gone through and just done like a simple like control F search to find all the words monument and change them to park. Speaker 2 (5:32) Wow. They're super short staffed. Exactly. Speaker 1 (5:36) Yes. But no, this place is so cool and it's definitely deserving of its national park status if you ask me. Oh, Speaker 2 (5:45) yeah. It's Speaker 1 (5:45) such a unique landscape. Speaker 2 (5:48) So we're going to explore White Sands National Park with you today. We're going to take you through the park and kind of share some of our favorite stops. But I will say there are some housekeeping things that we have to take care of at the very beginning of this park. Yes. Because there's some stuff that doesn't apply to other national parks that does apply here. And Speaker 1 (6:08) they're really also unique. Speaker 2 (6:10) And it's pretty important. It could ruin your trip. Speaker 1 (6:13) It definitely can. Speaker 2 (6:14) Firstly, if you've never heard of White Sands National Park, this one is in New Mexico. Speaker 1 (6:21) Its Speaker 2 (6:21) biggest city is Las Cruces, which is kind of close, 45 minutes to an hour away. The best airport to fly into this one is El Paso. So that's kind of the part of the country, the part of New Mexico that we're in. It's fairly close to El Paso, Texas. Speaker 1 (6:41) Yeah, we're talking lots of wide open spaces in this part of the country. Now, Speaker 2 (6:46) speaking of wide open spaces, that brings me to thing number one that you need to know before you come here. This national park and a lot of the Southwest in general, but this one gets really, really windy. And you'll notice as you're driving through this part of the country, they actually sometimes have to close down the freeways because of the wind. So that's something to keep in mind as you're planning this. We generally go to White Sands in either the spring or the fall. Speaker 1 (7:24) That's Speaker 2 (7:24) kind of the best weather where you're not like... in 100 degree weather on the sand dunes in the summer and then it actually does get pretty cold in the winter so but Speaker 1 (7:36) it also that crazy wind sometimes brings in really monsoonal weather too yeah Speaker 2 (7:41) especially in the summer and Speaker 1 (7:43) we've had to we were in las cruces once when we had to take shelter because it was so crazy lightning and rain and everything like that and so it can be It can be pretty wild around this part of the country. It Speaker 2 (7:56) can. So you'll just want to keep your eye on that, especially, I mean, it mostly affects, like we, this particular time that the wind was really bad, it was in the spring and spring winds typically are worse than other times of the year. But also we were towing our travel trailer. So that makes a big difference if you're Speaker 1 (8:17) a Speaker 2 (8:17) higher profile. driving through these big windy, you know, expanses of country where there's nothing to block. Speaker 1 (8:26) Yeah. You know, we just didn't want to get blown right over. Yeah. It was, it was crazy. You Speaker 2 (8:32) will see signs as you're approaching this park. Like they do close down the roads. With Speaker 1 (8:37) instructions on like what to do in a sandstorm too. Yeah. Speaker 2 (8:41) We're like, uh, we were not prepared. Speaker 1 (8:46) Yeah. Speaker 2 (8:47) Luckily, we were okay. The other thing about this park that is different than other national parks is that it does have set hours. So they do have a gate. They do lock that gate. You can't come and go in this national park as you please. Right. They have hours that it's open. And so before you go and before you plan your trip, make sure that you know what the hours of the park are going to be. While you're there. And then check the second thing because there's a missile testing range right outside of this national park. And when they're testing these missiles, they have to close down the park for safety. And Speaker 1 (9:28) she says. outside of the park. It's kind of, if you look at the boundaries, like White Sands is like right in the middle of this giant missile testing range. And Speaker 2 (9:37) if you put in White Sands only into your GPS, it will take you to the missile range, not the national park. Which is so Speaker 1 (9:46) crazy. It's like, oh my gosh, we're part of a weapons testing facility right here. Oh my gosh. They Speaker 2 (9:54) do publish on the national park website. like when they're going to be doing that missile testing. Sometimes it's like a couple times a week. So you do need to check. I will say I was very disappointed last time we were there. There was nothing written anywhere on the website or anywhere. And it was closed when I tried to go. Yeah, Speaker 1 (10:14) because the government could do whatever the heck it wants. Speaker 2 (10:16) So, you know, just because it's not posted on the website does not mean that they also might not close it. I was trying to get in for the sunrise and I went by myself. We left the kids at the hotel with John and I couldn't get in. So Speaker 1 (10:33) you were very disappointed when you came back. And Speaker 2 (10:36) I was like checking my like I kept checking my phone like did I miss it somewhere? Like I was looking on their Facebook page. I was looking everywhere. nowhere did it say anything about it being closed that day for missile testing, but it was still locked and closed. And I was within the hours that it was supposed to be open. So that can be kind of disappointing. Luckily, it's usually only for like a couple hours. So it's not usually like the whole day you can't get in, but that's definitely something you're going to want to watch on this park as well. Speaker 1 (11:08) Yeah. And it's to kind of give some historical context to this missile. testing range. This is a good time for us to be kind of doing this just a couple years after Oppenheimer came out. But the Trinity site, which was the Manhattan Project where the first nuclear bomb was ever set off. was just north of White Sands National Park inside this missile testing range. Speaker 2 (11:36) Interesting. Yeah. Speaker 1 (11:37) So if you want a little bit of a side detour, if you wanted to go and see that, you can actually go there. I feel like I would want to wear thick clothing if I was visiting that place. Speaker 2 (11:47) I'm not so sure. I don't think they really let you just go there, John. Speaker 1 (11:51) Yeah, that's probably true. But I have seen, like I clicked on it, Google Maps, and I've seen lots of random people like walking around. They have a monument. Speaker 2 (12:00) Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, maybe you can go there. Interesting. Maybe you have to go as Speaker 1 (12:04) part of a certain tour or something. Yeah, Speaker 2 (12:06) if anybody knows, let us know. Maybe we'll do that next time. Speaker 1 (12:10) Yeah, but it's part of this missile range. So you're really close to nuclear history. Speaker 2 (12:15) So then you might be wondering, why is this a national park? How did this get, you know, this little pocket of New Mexico get protected as a national park? Basically within a missile testing site. Yeah. Speaker 1 (12:31) You Speaker 2 (12:31) know, what makes it so great? Why is it a national park? And we will dig into this more in the White Sands Fun Facts episode coming up. Speaker 1 (12:41) But Speaker 2 (12:42) what I will say that you need to know that makes this place so special is that it is the largest gypsum dune field in the world. In Speaker 1 (12:51) the world. It's so big. And the Speaker 2 (12:54) gypsum. is the white sand. Yeah, Speaker 1 (12:58) it's so unique. If you've ever been to sand dunes or great sand dunes or just a sandy beach, this is so different. This white sand is incredibly fine and it even feels different on your feet. And it's Speaker 2 (13:12) ethereal. Like if I had to envision what heaven looked like in like any of the movies or anything, you know, where there's just like... clouds and everything's glowing and stuff. It's white sands. Speaker 1 (13:27) Oh yeah. Speaker 2 (13:28) Do you know what I mean? Like, it's like you're standing there and you're surrounded just by all this beautiful white sand and the clouds are pretty. And if you get a nice sunset, then everything turns colors. And it's just like, this is like straight out of a movie. It's Speaker 1 (13:46) so cool. Speaker 2 (13:47) It's so cool. So that's why it's protected out here in this. kind of weird place with all these weird rules. And, you know, it's because there is literally nothing else like it in the world. Speaker 1 (14:03) Yeah. And they keep, we'll go in, like you said, we'll just, we'll talk about this more in fun facts, but they keep discovering things here that are just so important to human history timeline. Yeah. Speaker 2 (14:17) And Speaker 1 (14:17) it's so neat. So Speaker 2 (14:18) amazing. Okay. So. Now we're going to take you through the park with us. And I have to say, this is a very small park. It's going to take us about five minutes to Speaker 1 (14:31) take Speaker 2 (14:31) you through the park. Speaker 1 (14:32) Well, I have a plan for that. Speaker 2 (14:34) Okay. Speaker 1 (14:35) Because when we did the Great Sand Dunes exploring episode, without considering all of the other options, I