We landed in White Sands around 4:30 Mountain time and yes, this was our third time zone in 4 days. I’m really enjoying this part of the trip. Along the road leading up to White Sands, we were fortunate to see a pile of white sand along the road before we actually got into the national monument. I got a plastic baggie filled with it and also took the bulb of a desert plant that was nearby (found out later it was called a Senna). White Sands National Monument was absolutely incredible. I honestly kind of felt like we were either at a beach in the middle of the ocean or we were on Tattoine… only with white sand. We attempted to sled down some of the dunes with a bowl sled, but it really didn’t work out so well. I think it was because the friction of the sand was a little bit more than we expected. So we stopped that, and began a long jumping contest over the dunes. I didn’t participate due to my fear of hyper-extending my knee (got a bone bruise with some meniscus damage), but it was still fun to watch. We also played some games like tic-tac-toe and Connect 4 in the sand and then wrote some large messages. The sunset was pretty incredible (despite any cool cloud formations) because the sand developed an eerie blue color. It was so quiet you could hear a sneeze a mile away.
We rolled into Las Cruces a little before 9PM which is a big deal in a small town where everything closes relatively early. We got some dinner at a Mexican Restaurant that closed 5 minutes after we got in. We met up with our local tour guide/host Jon and he recommended anything with a chili. As a result, I went ahead and ordered some stuffed green chili’s which were delicious. After that, we went to a local brewpub called the High Desert Brewing Company. I was really impressed by their local flavor and the fact that they only served the beer they brewed.
Of course, this is again a small town, so they shut up shop pretty early around 10PM so we only tried two of their beers. Jon explained to me that this was one of the three poorest counties in the US, but according to him, mostly because of how cheap everything is. The next morning we had some breakfast burritos at a place called Nellie’s. They used to deliver burritos in town and thats how they got started back in the 60’s. Once again, this town loves their chili’s and of course that was one of the ingredients listed for the burritos. We had our breakfast burritos (still don’t top Bob’s) then hit the road for one of the most amazing stretches of driving yet.
Oh and by the way, the reason gypsum is in the title, is because that is the mineral in the sand that causes its white appearance.
