A day trip to White Sands National Park, New Mexico from El Paso, Texas

White Sands National Park is truly one of the wonderful places to visit located in New Mexico. The nearby cities to drive from are El Paso in Texas and Albuquerque in New Mexico, it would take approximately about 1.5 hours and 3.5 hours respectively.

We along with our friends planned the trip for the month of February. We all flew to El Paso, Texas, and stayed there for a week to explore three National Parks starting with the White Sands National Park.

Since it was a day trip we started at around 11 am, and our plan was to see the sunset from the National Park. It wasn’t a long drive, we headed straight to the White Sands Visitor Center. In the visitor center, we inquired about the places we can see and things we should look forward to in the national park. One of the important motives for going to the national park was sand sliding/ sand sledding. So, we bought the plastic sleds along with wax from one of the shops at the visitor center.

Since we already had the Annual Pass(America The Beautiful), we did not have to pay the entrance fee. We got to know that the park gates close at night (during our visit it was supposed to close one hour after the sunset). You can check at the visitor center about the exact time and plan ahead.

Well, once you start driving through dunes drive, it will start appearing as if it’s a snowy road but it’s basically ultrafine gypsum sand. It was my first time encountering gypsum sand, and it looked so surreal and beautiful at the same time.

The first stop we made was at Interdune Boardwalk, it’s an elevated boardwalk that is about 0.4 mile. It’s easy to walk straight from the parking lot and the trail has boards displaying information about vegetation and animals in the area.

I did spot many yucca shrubs in the area. Sunlight can be very strong and reflects a lot on the white sands so make sure to have a pair of shades with you. Since I had forgotten to carry it with me, I got a pair from one of the shops at the visitor center. And, they do have a good collection for children as well.

After the boardwalk, we headed towards a picnic area, which offers picnic tables with windscreens by the side of the dunes loop drive to have lunch, which we had brought with us from El Paso.

Well, it was time for what we all had been waiting for, sand sliding. By far one of the best thrilling experiences I ever had. We drove from the picnic area and parked our vehicle at a parking spot just next to some giant dunes. It was so much difficult to climb up the dunes but was worth taking every pain to enjoy what was coming next. Gypsum sand was literally ultra fine in the area. We all were totally covered with sand and let’s not talk about our shoes and car’s carpet!

I literally had so many crazy falls but I enjoyed those too, such ironic. We did spend the entire afternoon sliding, clicking photos, making reels, and finally made our way to the final destination of the trip Alkali Flat. It was the place where we had planned to see the sunset with mountains on the backdrop.

Well, we did not hike the entire 5 miles of the Alkali Flats because it was already approaching sunset. Rather were in search of a perfect location to witness the sunset at this otherworldly sight. There were many people around the area so we were confident we were not lost. Because sometimes it’s difficult to know the exact path since sand dunes keep changing their location depending on the wind so be watchful while walking on the dunes. There are poles placed as landmarks to know the paths. Finally, we climbed one of the giant dunes and waited for the sun to set.