The Lone and Level Sands...

White Sands National Monument is a blazing white dune field in the middle of New Mexico, close to a small town called Alamogordo. To get there without a car, you have to take the Greyhound through Las Cruces, just north of the border with Mexico. This involves going through a US Border Patrol checkpoint. Now, New Mexico seems to have passed a law (along with Arizona) saying that all non-US citizens have to have their documents with them, or they run the risk of being arrested and deported. Dexter had left his passport in the hotel safe back in Albuquerque, reasoning that he wouldn't need it for a day trip to a small desert, and that it would be foolish to take it, especially as we were riding Greyhound.

US Border Patrol disagreed with me, however, but thankfully I was only threatened with deportation the first time we went through the checkpoint (a Hispanic woman on our bus was not so lucky, however, and was taken off the bus for processing), but on the way back I was taken off the bus and almost detained. Thankfully they found me in the immigration records just in the nick of time, and I was allowed back on the bus. The way I was treated, as a white Anglo-Saxon male, was completely different how they handled the Mexicans on the bus with us. They talked in a friendly, polite manner with me; the poor Hispanic woman above was surrounded by three burly All-American men, arms crossed, stony expressions set on their militaristic faces. Needless to say she was not allowed back on the bus.

White Sands was worth it, however. We checked in to a campground in Alamogordo, and then took a taxi over to the park entrance. As we said before, we didn't have a car, so we hiked the two miles to the edge of the dune field. We then hiked another four miles into the dunes themselves, and were very glad we came.

Dex walking up the road to the dunes, from the Visitors Center.

The 'sand' is gypsum, meaning the grains are fine, floury and bright white. There are patches with no vegetation, where the shimmering dunes stretch towards the far distant alkali flats and the mountains on the horizon. At times it's like being on another planet. You can stare in one direction and not see anything that tells you you're on Earth (apart from the blue sky, of course).

Part of a now closed-off road covered with dunes.

It is also searingly hot. Water (and lots of it) is an absolute must. Electrolyte drinks are good as well, just in case you get very tired and dehydrated. Most people drive into the dune field, but hiking gives you a much better experience. Scrambling up and down the dunes is great fun, and things lose a bit of their brilliance when you are looking at them out of a car window. We stayed until sunset, when the dunes turned blue and the stars came out. 

Dex on one of the mini dunes.

Once again, like the Grand Canyon, pictures speak louder than words.