White Sands National Park
Winter Migration Road Trip, Day 8 | Fort Stanton, NM to Lordsburg, NM | White Sands National Park | November 2023
As we were leaving Lincoln National Forest and the Sacramento Mountains and descending into the valley, we were met with one of my favorite views in New Mexico: an expansive valley view with mountains in the backdrop, and in the foreground of the San Andres Mountains, a thin strip of sand that’s white as snow. For all the times we drove between Iowa and Arizona, we only ever stopped at White Sands National Park once, and its memory is tainted by car troubles and an expensive 4 hour tow ride home. Today we were excited to visit, not only to make some happy memories here, but also because since we visited, the park was upgraded from a national monument to a national park. We entered the park, got our new stamps, and drove all the way out to the picnic and backcountry camping area.
We didn’t have any grand plans here other than to run around on the dunes, and it was the perfect day for that. Not too busy, and gorgeous weather. The sun was warm on our skin, the sand was cool for Charlotte’s feet. I remember when we last brought her here, she was only 6 months old and had a blast dashing through the sand. Today, she was more interested in sniffing and following random scents around in circles, but we were able to convince her to walk with us in a nice big loop. I found that if we were in an open area where I knew she was safe, if I jogged in place or set a quick pace, she would follow my lead and even almost got up to a run. We were just happy to see her enjoying herself here!
After our walk, we had lunch at a picnic area and talked about how else we wanted to spend our day. Charlotte started getting restless and ended up leading us on another long walk around the parking lot, until we finally ended up across the street at the base of another dune. She decided this was the perfect place for a nap, so we followed her lead and sat down right there in the sand. It doesn’t sound like much, but moments like this make me so thankful that we’re able to live the way we do, to just sit down and enjoy wherever we are for a while, soak in the sun and live in the moment.
As for camping that evening, we wanted to go at least another hour West to push us closer to Tucson, where we wanted to be in two days. We tried some BLM land South of I-10, but couldn’t find a road or spot we felt comfortable with, so we pushed on another 45 minutes to Lordsburg where we found a spot North of town. We arrived just in time to watch a beautiful desert sunset, with the sun hitting the mountain ranges just right so we could see their layering in different shades of color. It felt exactly like a moment right out of my dreams from years ago when I longed to be back in the Southwest, living a lifestyle much like we do now. Today may not have been a super eventful day, but it felt significant to me because all these little moments we enjoyed were moments that I had hoped for and imagined for a long time.
We had dinner, then settled in for the night — finally a night with very comfortable temperature, though not the most restful as several thunderstorms with high winds passed through during the night. We were thankful to be safe and cozy in the van through all that!
