We went for a drive today in the White Sands Monument near Alamogordo. This sand is made is gypsum, and is truly white like snow. When you are out in the middle of it, it feels like you are back in Montana after a deep snowfall.
They plow the sand from the roads just like we would plow snow.
In some places, the sand has hardened into a solid rock-like mass.
The snow underfoot feels like you are walking on "mushy snow"--the texture that the snow becomes when it is kind of warm and it has been sanded--two steps forward and one step back.
Notice that Ted is in short sleeves. The temperature was in the 70's.
We didn't see any children sledding, but the shop at the visitor's center sold plastic snow saucers so children could go sledding on the sand hills.
When we returned to the visitor's center, I had the chance to identify some of the desert plants that we had been seeing. Here are a few.
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| Colorado Four O'Clock |
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| Torrey's Yucca | | |
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| Desert Spoon |
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| New Mexico Agave |
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| Honey Mesquite |
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| Torrey's Jointfir |
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