Me and Hannah laughing with joy to be in such a stunning environment
The week of the 24th-31st of July was probably one of the best weeks of my life. My GURL Hannah came to visit from NYC and we just did ALL of the most beautiful things. Her flight was supposed to come in to El Paso around 6:30PM but got delayed till 10:30PM so I ended up driving from El Paso to the campsite in Alamogordo in order to set up camp in daylight and then hauling it back to the airport to pick her up. We got up in the morning to catch the sunrise over the White Sands National Monument but unfortunately the gate was closed until 7:00AM... So we just drove a little down the road and sipped on our coffee/ munched on our gas station breakfast sandwiches until finally it was 7:00.
Sledding in July!
Right when we parked we found two abandoned saucer sleds with wax left behind that we promptly snagged! The monument was a driving monument so we took ole' Berta down the sandy drive and pulled over at multiple stops. HOLY MOLY this monument was surreal. The lighting in the early morning was unbelievably stunning. I had never been to full on sand dunes before and it sure was an otherworldly experience! We attempted to sled down the dunes with not the best success... but it was still worth it! Definitely remember that part of sledding is trudging back up the dune. WOOF! Despite the fact that we were out and about pretty early we were STILL sweating up a storm. Dat desert sun is no joke. Definitely drink plenty of water and apply sunscreen often when visiting!
As we made our way back to the visitor center a few turn-outs caught our eye. Basically any of the trash in the park stuck out like a sore thumb against the pearly white shiny sand. In one pullout in particular I found about 10 water bottles that had been left behind and filled with sand from the blowing wind over dunes (I can only imagine)?? THEN in the pullout below I found TWO Little Caesar's cardboard pizza boxes and this weird plastic kite. JUST LYING THERE! Maybe the visitors wanted to enjoy a hot pizza in the hot desert sun and then were like "oh! These greasy boxes would be perfect sleds for the sand??"... and then not feel the need to recycle those boxes after they were used??
All in all, beautiful park, but a lot of trash for it's relatively small size. At the end of the day we returned the sleds we had found to where we had found them. HOPEFULLY another group of visitors will take them for their own enjoyment and we didn't just contribute more trash left behind in the park. Inside the gift shop you can buy/ rent these sleds for $15/ $5 respectfully. BUT WHY PAY FOR A SAUCER YOU'RE GONNA USE ONCE IF YOU CAN SPREAD THE LUV AND SHARE!!
Posing with kite/ pizza box trash