An Obsession Begins: White Sands Nat'l Monument 5/14/09

It's fitting that our NPS passport obsession began at White Sands National Monument, one of the coolest places in America. Brooke had seen the little, seemingly inoffensive stamp pad at Montezuma's Castle in Arizona a few days before, but not until we arrived here, as our annual trip neared its end, did we decide that we had to devote all of our waking hours to something other than visiting presidential gravesites. We purchased the book for the bargain price of $8.95, proudly affixed the stamp to the obscenely clean pages (Brooke, all too new at this, slapped the thing right in the middle, much to our later dismay), and never looked back. Nineteen months later, we would have traveled to various NPS sites in all but two of those months, taking us to Wyoming, Utah, South Dakota, Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Nebraska, Arizona, and Oklahoma. It's been one hell of a ride, and we can only thank the inspiring gypsum of White Sands for our diminished bank account and overused, high mileage little vehicle.

As for the site itself, what can one say without sounding like an out-of-his-mind eight year old? Awesome as hell? Check. Funky, odd, and utterly unique? You betcha. How many places can you name where you are moved to pull off your shoes and socks and run to the hills like a man possessed? Where, in the middle of May, it looks as if you're plowing your way through Aspen in mid-December? Sand dunes seemingly plopped in the middle of nowhere are, all on their own, a reason to cheer, but these bad boys are white. You hear me, white! What the hell is going on here? By all means, there's a rational, scientific reason for all this, but when it's this much fun, do you really care? If you must know, Lake Otero once dried up, left behind a whole mess load of gypsum (differing from common sand in that it is composed of soft calcium sulfate), and stuck around to form dunes because it was surrounded, without rivers to provide an outlet, by the Tularosa Basin. Water, wind, and light continue to push and build, fostering the appearance of a great white way in the New Mexico desert. In addition, the....whoa, look over there! This cannot be real.

There's a great video at the visitor center to explain all this, of course, and it's worth checking out. But that's just the calm before the storm. Hop in your damn car and get to it. Run, skip, and play like a mindless idiot, you've earned it. Unlike so many sites the NPS has to offer, it's not simply a sit-and-stare kind of place, though it's easy to get lost in the endless sea of sand. This is all about interaction. And one of the best at that.

FINAL RATING

10/10