White Sands National Monument

White Sands National Monument is 15 miles from Alamogordo. It was created as a National Monument on January 18, 1933 by President Herbert Hoover, under the authority of the Antiquities Act of 1906, and was dedicated and had its grand opening on April 29, 1934. White Sands is 275 square miles and is completely surrounded by military installations. The white sand dunes is composed of gypsum crystals. Gypsum is rarely found in the form of sand because it is water soluble and rain usually dissolves the gypsum and carries it out to sea. The Tularosa Basin is enclosed meaning there is no outlet to the sea and that rain that dissolves gypsum from the surrounding San Andres and Sacramento Mountains is trapped in the basin creating the dunes.
We headed to the dunes around 6:00 pm to beat some of the heat of the day and to watch the sunset. Due to thunderstorms in the surrounding area the clouds ended up blocking our sunset but we still had a good time. We brought the dogs. Jenny and Nathan have two dogs, Ace and Lily, and we brought Shadow. With the huge open spaces and the privacy you can find at the dunes we let the dogs run. They went wild running all over chasing eachother and just having a great time. I had visited White Sands last January when I was in Alamogordo visiting Jenny and Nate. We came to see the sunset and let the dogs run but we froze our rear ends off. This time when the sun went down it felt great. The heat of the day was gone and the wind that seems to always blow at the dunes kept it comfortable. There is no food or water at the dunes but you can bring your own. While we were there we saw people flying kites, some brought their horses to ride and others were sledding down the dunes. It is fun to sled down the dunes and the best part is you don't get wet! A saucer or disc sled works great on the sand. We had fun going down the dunes however the climb back up was a workout. The dunes are supposively haunted. The Legend of Pavla Blanca, the ghost of White Sands, is a spanish maiden that haunts the dunes looking for her fiance that was killed during an Apache attack that left his body to be consumed by the dune. Just after sunset it is said she arises walking the dunes in her white wedding dress. After the sun set it was time to leave but we did have a great time playing. Oh and we did not see Pavlo Blanca haunting the dunes. White Sands is a definate "must see" when you are in the Alamogordo area.