White Sands (Photos)

Position: 32°46’53″N 106°10’23″W

By midday the heat bouncing off the brilliant gypsum crystals at White Sands National Park will sear your eyeballs and fry your skin. Squint hard enough and you can barely make out the dunes and swales that is the landscape here. It is not a place for the ill prepared. The light is so dazzling it’s easy to become disoriented and lost. Especially if you venture out of sight of the carpark. Not only do you need plenty of water, but a compass and the knowledge to use it seems almost essential. You’re in another world. One that demands your respect and rewards with its unique beauty.

Surrounding this stark, seemingly blank canvas, is one of the most unique ecosystems in the country. Animals adapted for this harsh environment burrow at daytime and venture out in the cool of night. Plants do their best to hang on long enough for their roots to find brackish water some 18 inches down. The whole mass moves with the winds. Yet, White Sands sits in stark contrast with its high desert surroundings.

ONCE THE ROCKETS ARE UP…

In 1942 and firmly entrenched in the war, FDR established the 1,243,000 acre Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range. Tank commanders had a new place to practice blowing things up. Then in 1945 to the north of White Sands at the Trinity site, the first atomic bomb was detonated and the pyrotechnics really took off. Later that year, a 300 boxcars loaded up with Peenemünde spare parts (i.e., captured V-2 rocket kit) along with das König der Raketen himself, Wernher von Braun, and 100 of his closest amigos, arrived. The White Sands Missile Range continues to test all kinds of human-eliminating technology for both governments and businesses. And, I guess if you throw in few rocketly-ambitious billionaires, private individuals.

Unholy Trinity

Desperately ill prepared, (I had no sunglasses) our visit was short. Just long enough to admire the pluck of the Chinese tourists sledding on the dunes and still short enough not to go snow blind. Memories of impromptu high school parties in the park took Carol on a winding trip down memory lane. I will, with your encouragement, let her tell that story.

We hoped to visit the Trinity site, but it is only open twice a year on the first Saturday in October and April. We were headed north, back through Alamagordo and the west across the wide Tularosa Basin. Highway 380, a straight berm with sheer sides takes you within 13 miles of ground zero. Looking out over the dusty countryside, your view is only occasionally interrupted by a hardy mesquite poking out of an arroyo. With so much sheer emptiness and a war to win, it’s unsurprising this place ushered in the nuclear age 76 years ago.

Here are a few photos of White Sands for your enjoyment: