White Sands National Monument
Trip Start
Jun 05, 2007
1
8
60
Trip End
Jul 26, 2007
White Sands National Monument,
New Mexico,
United States
Monday, June 11, 2007
White Sands National Monument "ROADTRIP"
White Sands Nat'l Monument 1
White Sands National Monument picnic areas
White Sands National Monument Yoda
I left camp at 9AM and drove 18 miles to White Sands National Monument. Can you guess why they call it that? Well, the sand dunes formed over 250 million years ago when this region was at the bottom of the sea (remember me mentioning that in the last two entries?). The gypsum below the sea hardened and rose out of the sea 70 million years ago at approximately 6:17PM (ok, maybe sometime close to that). Now there are no rivers to carry out the gypsum so the white sand dunes remain.
White Sands Nat'l Monument 2
White Sands Nat'l Monument 4
White Sands Nat'l Monument 6
White Sands National Monument 3
White Sands National Monument 2
I drove through the park and climbed/walked along some of the dunes. I had a beach chair in the car so I sat out on top of one of the dunes and did some reading in the middle of this desert.
White Sands National Monument dune lounging
Tatooine?
White Sands Nat'l Monument 3
White Sands Nat'l Monument 8
In the afternoon I drove 192 miles to stay in Lordsburg, New Mexico. In the evening I visited Shakespeare Ghost town. This town had grown in 1870 to 3,000 people who were on their way to California. Now with me there it had a population of one person on his way to California!
Comments
Yoda
That Yoda picture is well cool :D