White Sands National Park Website 

Remember back in early 2020 before the world shut down?  We were lucky enough to spend our last weekend getaway as free people in enchanting New Mexico!  

We grabbed an Airbnb in Organ, NM right across the street from the apparently famous Renoo's Thai Time restaurant.  It was a good location in that we were as close as we could be to the National Park without having to drive past it and still close enough to Las Cruces that we could easily replace the items our kids broke at the Airbnb.  

The park sits in the middle of the White Sands Missile Range and HWY 70 which leads to it is closed periodically (up to 3 hours) for missile testing, be sure to check the website for park closure updates before you leave. Speaking of missiles, on the way to the park from the Las Cruces side, make sure to do a Pit Stop  at the White Sands Missile Range Museum.  You'll have to do the normal check-in type stuff of a military base and park your car at the gate, but the short walk is worth seeing all the different types of missiles, rockets, and vehicles they have there.  Remember this is the base where they tested the first nuclear bomb (Trinity) so there is lots of history here.

So the park gets its name obviously from the White Sand Dunes that are found in the park.  These dunes are made of Gypsum that was deposited in the Permian Sea 250 million years ago.  These days that gypsum is provided by the water deposited, mixed with minerals, and then evaporated in Lake Lucero and then blown to the dunes by the constant wind.

One cool part about this park is that you get to go and drive out among the dunes.  You don't need a 4-wheel drive or anything, the gypsum sand is compacted easily and the park can just plow roads into the sand.  From the Visitor's Center at the front gate of the park you take the Dunes Road out to the the different nature trails, boardwalks and picnic areas.  The picnic areas here are HUGE.  They are big plowed parking lots with tons of covered benches.  It's at these picnic areas that you can do your sand sledding.  Most of the spots back right up to a perfect sized sledding hill.  The sleds can be "rented" at the visitor center.  I say that in quotes because you have to buy the sleds from them but they will repurchase them at a lower price when you're done.  Any snow saucer will work though, you just need to wax the bottom with the wax that can be purchased on site.   Our kids had a blast and it really tired them out, so it made for an enjoyable night.... ;)

This park rates at 4 out of 5 stars based on our standard criteria.

Rating Criteria: Fun, Scenic, Ease of Travel, Wildlife, Crowds