Day 36: White Sands National Park

Sunday, Oct 9, 2022 

Drove from El Paso, Texas to Santa Fe, New Mexico today, with a stop at White Sands National Park on the way. It is a very unique park, with miles and miles of white sand (actually gypsum). The terrain is mostly flat, the sand dunes are not too high. So, as far as the eye can see, it is bright white all around.  The park is also surrounded by the White Sands missile range. 

It was cloudy when I reached the visitor center. I then set out along Dunes drive that goes about 10 miles, with various vista points and trailheads along the way. A few miles in, the road transitions to just packed sand (gypsum). It was fun to drive on this white sand. 

I parked at the trailhead for the White Sands Backcountry Trail, a short trail to experience walking on the white sand. The trail is not visible in the vast white expanse, you have to look for the red and white poles at regular intervals.

It was not all white and barren, there were a few hardy plants as well.

Half way into the hike, it started raining. It also became very windy. The poncho I was carrying in my backpack, finally got used and came in handy.  I had to abandon my plan to do a second hike and skip some of the vista points. 

It was interesting to return from the hike and find my car parked on the edge of this shallow lake formed by the rain. 

Another challenge today was the lack of superchargers around the national park. I had a choice of either driving an extra 150 miles to get access to a supercharger or to stop at an RV park for a couple of hours. I chose the latter and used the time at the RV park to relax, have a late lunch and walk around a bit.   

 

It was quite late at night by the time I reached my B&B in Santa Fe. The host lives in one of the rooms in the house, while other bedrooms are for guests. He was quite social and an eclectic personality, with playing piano, singing songs, woodworking, metal sculptures, painting among his pursuits. Here he is posing with his custom cutting boards, hand made artwork using different woods.

 

 

 The raw numbers for the day:

• 388 miles driving, 6500 steps walking
• 2 Tesla supercharger stops, Level 2 charging at RV park
  
• 2 states - Texas, New Mexico