White Sands Nat'l Park, New Mexico

No...this is not snow! This is White Sands National Park.

At the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert lies a mountain-ringed valley, the Tularosa Basin. And rising from the heart of this basin is one of the world's great natural wonders-the glistening white sands of New Mexico. There are great wave-like dunes of gypsum sand that engulfs 275 square miles and has created the largest gypsum dune field in the world. Gypsum is used in the making of dry wall, plaster of paris, beer, chocolate and toothpaste. These snow-white dunes rise up 60 feet above the Tularosa Basin floor and there are many trails to hike and sand hills to "sled" done.

Surrounding these dunes is the White Sands Missile Range, the first man-made atomic explosion site. In the 1960's, this area proved ideal for testing the lunar module engines that propelled Apollo astronauts off the moon's surface. Today, the US Army conducts laser, radar and flight research here. As a matter of fact, the National Park is closed on February 26 due to missile testing.

We took at evening hike with a Park Ranger and watched a beautiful double sunset. As the sun sets over the Sacrament Mountains, then you see the reflection a few minutes later over the San Andres Mountains on the other side of the Tularosa Basin. But it was real windy out in that open area and quite cold.