Sonya's Blog - Day 249 - Boardwalk, Sledding and Sunset Walk

Sonya's Blog - Day 248 - February 25th - Boardwalk, sledding and Sunset Walk

We went back to White Sands today. The plan was to take a picnic and spend the day there, hiking, sledding and goofing around. It was very chilly this morning (-2), so we waiting until it warmed up to head out - around 11. I packed the part of the lunch I was responsible for, Blake was responsible for getting all the bbq stuff together, as we were going to cook burgers at the park. They have picnic areas, with bbq's, so Bake had bought briquettes and burgers and he was super excited. Blake realized, when we got to the park, that he forgot the actual burgers. Mmmm! Luckily I had packed a lot of stuff, so we could still have a lunch.

We walked along the boardwalk first. This was only about 1/2 a KM, but it did have little plaques along the way describing the vegetation at White Sands and the animal life. We then drove over to the picnic area and set up for lunch and sledding. Isaac took off right away to toboggan. He was having a grand old time. We had lunch and goofed around on the dunes for a bit. We were going to do the 8 KM hike today to Alkali Flats, but decided to do a shorter one instead and then come back for the guided sunset walk instead. We decided on the dune hike, which was back near the entrance gates. It is only about 1 1/2 Km's long, however, when we got there the parking lot was closed off. Oh well, we just headed back to camp.

We had an early supper (the forgotten burgers) and then went back to White Sands for the 5 PM sunset stroll.

This was a guided hike by one of the Park Rangers. There was quite a large group when we arrived waiting to go on the hike. We had brought Kizmet for the hike, as well, as we asked at the front desk if we could and they said "yes". We were the only ones with our dog, so she was extremely popular. The guided tour was pretty good. The Park Ranger spoke very clearly and was easy to hear, so that was a bonus. It went a little slow for me and we didn't cover very much ground.

The sun setting behind the San Andreas Mountains:

White Sands was created when the Permian Sea retreated way back millions of years ago. This left behind a great amount of gypsum. The mountains rose up and they contained this gypsum in their make-up. Melting glaciers, and today rain and snow, dissolved this gypsum and it flowed down into this basin into the shallow lakes, like the Alkali Flats area. Wind and sun, over thousands of years, has resulted in selenite crystals forming, which is the separation of the gypsum from the water. Finally, wind and water would start to break apart these crystals into the tiny white sand crystals, these built up over the years and we now have White Sands. These sand dunes are not static, they are continuing to move and change due to steady and strong southwest winds, by up to 15 feet per year. They now cover 275 square miles of the Chihuahuan Desert, which is the largest gypsum dune field in the world. The difference between these dunes and other dunes, is that gypsum dunes remain moist during periods of drought. This moisture prevents the dunes from blowing away completely. White Sands is in the basin between the San Andreas Mountains to the West and the Sacramento Mountains to the East. When you look at the mountains, you can see the lighter gypsum lines in the rock.

The sun glowing off the Sacramento Mountains:

The temperature dropped fast as the sun was going down. It was about 17 when we started the walk and an hour and half later it was 6 or so. We were pretty chilly.

This is a skunkbush sumac, which grows dense deep roots in the sand. When the dune moves on, it leaves behind this pedestal:

After the hike was over, we went back to camp. The park was closing up pretty quick and it was dark by this time. We got back at about 7. Blake and the kids watched Corner Gas and I read Inadmissible Evidence (a lawyer book).

Sonya