White Sands National Park, Continental Divide

White Sands National Park seems like a bit of the Sahara right in the middle of the New Mexico Desert.  In contrast to the red, rocky scrubby landscape found in most of this state’s lowlands, this national park is made up of miles and miles of dunes, which appear as white as a Los Angeles smile in the midday sun.

The white colour of the dunes is due to the sand being made up of tiny gypsum crystals, which reflect light.  This is the largest gypsum dunefield on Earth, and one of the USA’s newest National Parks after it was upgraded from a National Monument in 2019.  It’s also one of the country’s most visited, receiving 6,000 tourists a year.

It’s not hard to see why; the brilliant white of the dunes and their mountain backdrop create a great, and slightly surreal hiking spot.  Despite the relative uniformity of the landscape, there’s a lot to see, including what are probably the oldest footprints in the U.S., left here by someone walking through about 21,000 years ago.