Wow, let me start by saying I didn’t realize we were going to basically be in Mexico for this part of the drive. I’ve never been to El Paso, Texas before and I didn’t know that it is right on the border… as in, we were looking at “The Wall” in some places, and a regular fence in other places.
A little while later, we found ourselves in… New Mexico!
After some more driving, something we hadn’t experienced before, was this:
It’s a Border Patrol Station, but it was actually really far from the border. We went through about 5 or 6 of these throughout our week in Southwest Texas and New Mexico. I was nervous at first, as in, I thought they would want to come in and look around, but the most the Border Patrol ever asked us was “how many people are in the vehicle?” and “are you all U.S. citizens?”. Then they always dismissed us with a smile. Phew.
Soon after our first checkpoint experience, we arrived at White Sands National Park! As we were driving towards it, we couldn’t see any white sand anywhere. We were prepared to be unimpressed, and then, WOW, it truly looked like snow in the middle of a desert mountain landscape!
You guys, that’s SAND! Isn’t that crazy! During our Summer 2019 trip, we visited Great Sand Dunes National Park and I thought White Sands would be similar. It wasn’t. White Sands sand is actually white (as the name implies), while Great Sand Dunes is more brown.
At the time of our visit (December 2020), White Sands was the newest National Park! Due to COVID, the majority of the Visitor Center was closed, but we were able to go into the small part that was open and get our official National Park badges and stamp, as well as pick up Junior Ranger booklets for the boys to complete. There was a separate line to rent sleds, but luckily we didn’t have to wait. A nice family gave us their sleds rather than returning them. Nice! We were all set to slide!
We drove out to the farthest point and started there. We started on the smaller hills, then went bigger. We learned that the sleds had to be waxed well if you wanted to go fast. These boys have no fear… the faster, the better!
My sledding method was toes up, “boat pose”. Worked the best for me!
Isn’t it gorgeous? The scenery was just magnificent, white sand all the way to the surrounding mountain range.
We had a blast sledding at this location, but we were ready to try another spot. As we were walking back to the RV, we saw something strange in the distance… camels! Such a cool site, and such funny creatures!
The man with the camels lives with his wife in the nearby mountains. He said he brings the camels to White Sands on the weekends to spread the Good News of Jesus. How cool is that?! After we chatted with the man and took pictures, we loaded ourselves back into the RV and headed to another spot. As soon as we got there, we realized that the boys forgot their flip flops 10 miles back! Oops! We went back to hopefully find the shoes, and luckily, they were right in the parking lot where they had been left. Crisis averted!
The next spot we found was really fun. We had to hike over a dune, then there were tons of great sledding spots. Steeper hills that the boys loved, but gave me a heart attack. Again, they have no fear!
A day of sand sledding without any casualties… I call that a win!
This guy approves too! In case you don’t know him, Dusky is our 115-pound rescue Weimaraner. He has done LOTS of RV-ing with us!
The boys completed their Junior Ranger books, we returned to the Visitor Center, and they were officially sworn in as Junior Rangers. Always a fun accomplishment!
We loved White Sands National Park. It was a nice, relaxing day under the bright blue sky with our toes in the sand. We were able to keep our distance from other people, get some exercise and breathe in lots of fresh air.
Tomorrow we’ll head to Guadalupe Mountains National Park!
