Some of you may be wondering what the difference is between
a National Park and a National Monument.
Tish and Tess taught us this at the bottom of Carlsbad Caverns –
monuments can be designated by a President at any time – White Sands was made a
monument by President Hoover in 1933. To
gain national park status, the area must be declared a park by Congress. The difference? Funding.
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| Piece of Selenite |
White Sands, I learned, is actually composed of billions of tiny grains
of gypsum and exists because of a unique relationship between water, wind and
the particular desert environment surrounding Alamagordo, NM. The Sacramento Mountains (where Cloudcroft
is) and the San Andres Mountains contain high levels of gypsum. Rain and water seeping down into the desert
floor from these areas also contain high levels of the mineral. The gypsum infused water is trapped on the desert
floor in Lake Lucero – the lowest point in White Sands. The water eventually evaporates leaving the gypsum
behind in crystal like formations called selenite. 
That’s the scientific version. To everyone else, White Sands is 
basically a
HUGE sandbox. And, Oh. My. Is it FUN.
For this part, I think I’m just going to let the pictures speak for
themselves. I will say, that in the park’s bookstore, Ross and I met our future. Ranger Greg and his wife were working behind the counter and were the official people who signed my junior ranger paperwork. They are Ranger Volunteers. They call Rocky Mountain National Park their home, but they basically spend their winters traveling from one park to the next offering their services as docents and general park enthusiasts.
On the critter front, White Sands is unique because of how
the animals have adapted themselves to
their environment. There are several examples of animals and
reptiles who have, through the process of adaptation, developed white versions
of their darker selves so that they reduce their chances of being eaten. The roadrunner, the state bird, lives here
and snacks on the lizard population. On
our hike through the dunes we only saw little white lizards, but we saw
lots of evidence (tracks) of jackrabbits and roadrunners.
The other really cool thing we learned about the park was how the vegetation has adapted itself to the ever changing environment. Two plants grow in the park that made us feel very much at home - Little Bluestem grass and cottonwood trees! We saw a sign on one of the trails indicating that there was a cottonwood tree nearby. We looked and looked and then realized that, right in front of us was a small, leafy looking bush sticking out of the sand dune. Lo and behold, it was the top of the cottonwood tree. The trunk and larger branches were buried beneath the sand.
The soaptree yucca also grows very tall and extends its flower stalk so
that it can grow above the moving dune.
All you see is the top part of the yucca – but what you don’t see is the
(sometimes) 30 feet of stem that is buried in the dune.
Finally, sumac is a bush that basically uses water to solidify the sand moving around its roots to anchor itself to the dune floor. The moving sand travels on leaving a towering piece of permanent gypsum rock with a shaggy, bushy top.
This structure then becomes
a home for small rodents and insects that live in the interdunal regions (the
flat areas between the dunes).
The other really cool thing we learned about the park was how the vegetation has adapted itself to the ever changing environment. Two plants grow in the park that made us feel very much at home - Little Bluestem grass and cottonwood trees! We saw a sign on one of the trails indicating that there was a cottonwood tree nearby. We looked and looked and then realized that, right in front of us was a small, leafy looking bush sticking out of the sand dune. Lo and behold, it was the top of the cottonwood tree. The trunk and larger branches were buried beneath the sand.
The soaptree yucca also grows very tall and extends its flower stalk so
that it can grow above the moving dune.
All you see is the top part of the yucca – but what you don’t see is the
(sometimes) 30 feet of stem that is buried in the dune.
Finally, sumac is a bush that basically uses water to solidify the sand moving around its roots to anchor itself to the dune floor. The moving sand travels on leaving a towering piece of permanent gypsum rock with a shaggy, bushy top.This structure then becomes
a home for small rodents and insects that live in the interdunal regions (the
flat areas between the dunes).
We messed around White Sands for about four hours before
heading back up the mountain. We ate dinner at Big Daddy's Restaurant on the east edge of town. Occasionally, Ross and I like to listen to The Splendid Table on NPR. Ross had heard on one of those shows that there is a close correlation between excellent tasting food and the number of religious items in a restaurant. All I'm going to say about Big Daddy's is this: The entire west wall of the restaurant was covered with crosses, there was scripture on the menu, signed guitars from both George Straight and Alan Jackson were hanging on the wall next to an American flag, and a nice warm stove greeted you at the entrance. The food was AMAZING. Eat there. After another great meal (we ate there for lunch yesterday as well), we went back to our room to watch one of my alma mater's win (WSU) and the other one lose by one point (KSU). Although the loss was heartbreaking, it does save me from being very conflicted during the next round. Oh yeah, and KU won as well.
