Skip to main content

Dunes Drive of White Sands National Park


Dunes Drive is an eight-mile connecting road from US Route 70 to the Alkali Flat Trailhead in White Sands National Park. Dunes Drive was constructed following the designation of White Sands National Monument between 1936-1940. The last approximate four miles of Dune Drive are unsurfaced and require traveling over graded gypsum sand. White Sands National Park was designated into law during December 2019.




Part 1; the history of Dunes Drive

White Sands National Park is located in the Tularosa Basin of Dona Ana County and Otero County.  The namesake "White Sands" is the largest gypsum dunefield at in the world at approximately 275 square miles.  White Sands lies at low point in the endorheic Tularosa Basin near Lake Lucero.  The White Sands dunes are thought to have formed 7,000-10,000 years ago due to erosion of water-soluble gypsum from the San Andres Mountains and Sacramento Mountains.  The gypsum dunes of White Sands are typically 30 feet deep but can be as deep as 60 feet.  

White Sands National Monument was designated on January 18, 1933, by President Hebert Hoover.  Construction of the White Sands National Monument visitor facilities, general infrastructure and Dunes Drive would take place during 1936-1940.  The completed Dunes Drive can be seen branching from US Route 70 west of Alamogordo on the 1940 State Farm Insurance Map of New Mexico


On June 23, 1988, the White Sands National Monument Historic District was established.  The district comprised of the visitor center and other infrastructure developed during the 1936-1940 era. 



On December 20, 2019, the designation White Sands National Park was signed into law.  The designation of White Sands National Park saw the transfer of land management in the cooperative use boundary from the Army to the National Park Service.  An addition 2,029 acres of protected lands were also added to the newly designated National Park.    



Part 2; a drive on Dunes Drive

US Route 70 passes through the eastern tip of White Sands National Park where Dunes Drive and the visitor center facilities can be accessed.  The marque along US Route 70 still displays "White Sands National Monument" whereas the new vinyl signs now say, "White Sands National Park."




Signage at the visitor still denotes "White Sands National Monument." 


Dunes Drive branches from the visitor center as a paved road and passes through the park entry station.  






Dunes Drive beyond the entrance station first passes the Playa Trail.







The next trail encountered on Dunes Drive is Dunes Life Nature Trail.


Dunes Drive enters the namesake White Sands dunes and next passes the Interdune Boardwalk. 










The Interdune Boardwalk is a short trail which features an easy walk above the gypsum sands between numerous vegetated dunes.  










Dunes Drive beyond the Interdune Boardwalk becomes an unsurfaced roadway.  Traffic is required to travel atop compacted gypsum.  




Dunes Drive next intersects the Backcountry Camping Trail. 








The final leg of Dunes Drive consists of a loop which begins/ends at the Backcountry Camping Trail.  The loop consists of access to numerous picnic areas, dunes used for sledding and the Alkali Flat Trail.










The Alkali Flat Trail is the signature trail of White Sands National Park.  The trail consists of a 5-mile loop of the large dunes of Alkali Flat.  The Alkali Flat Trail is marked by way of orange reassurance markers.  


























Dunes Drive from the Alkali Flat Trail loops back to the Backcountry Camping Trail.  Signage directing traffic back to US Route 70 and the park exit can be found near the Backcountry Camping Trail. 





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Chowchilla Mountain Road to Yosemite National Park

Chowchilla Mountain Road of Mariposa County is one of the oldest roadways servicing Yosemite National Park.  As presently configured this fourteen-mile highway begins at California State Route 49 near Elliot Corner and terminates at the Wawona Road in Yosemite National Park.  Chowchilla Mountain Road was constructed as a franchise toll road over Battalion Pass circa 1869-1870.  The highway was built at behest of Galen Clark to connect the town of Mariposa to his property near the South Fork Merced River at what is now Wawona.   In late 1874 the highway along with Clark’s Station would be purchased by the Washburn Brothers.  The Washburn Brothers would continue to toll Chowchilla Mountain Road as part of their Yosemite Stage Route lines.  The highway would ultimately become a Mariposa County public highway in 1917.  Mariposa would later be more directly linked with Yosemite Valley in 1926 following the completion of the Yosemite All-Year Highwa...

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

In the nearly 60 years Interstate 40 has been open to traffic through the Pigeon River Gorge in the mountains of Western North Carolina, it has been troubled by frequent rockslides and damaging flooding, which has seen the over 30-mile stretch through North Carolina and Tennessee closed for months at a time. Most recently, excessive rainfall from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 saw sections of Interstate 40 wash away into a raging Pigeon River. While the physical troubles of Interstate 40 are well known, how I-40 came to be through the area is a tale of its own. Interstate 40 West through Haywood County near mile marker 10. I-40's route through the Pigeon River Gorge dates to local political squabbles in the 1940s and a state highway law written in 1921. A small note appeared in the July 28, 1945, Asheville Times. It read that the North Carolina State Highway Commission had authorized a feasibility study of a "...water-level road down [the] Pigeon River to the Tennessee l...

Angus L. Macdonald Bridge

At 1.3 kilometers (or about 0.84 miles) in length, the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge is one of two bridges crossing over the Halifax Harbour between Halifax, Nova Scotia and Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, with the other bridge being the A. Murray Mackay Bridge . Opened in 1955 and named after former Nova Scotia Premier and Canadian Minister of Defense for Naval Services Angus L. Macdonald, the Macdonald Bridge was the first bridge that crossed Halifax Harbour that was opened to traffic. The Macdonald Bridge was also the subject of the Big Lift, which was only the second time in history that the span of a suspension bridge were replaced while the bridge was open to traffic. Planning began in 2010 for the Big Lift, while construction took place between 2015 and 2017. Similar work occurred on the Lion's Gate Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia before the project took place on the Macdonald Bridge. At this time, much of the bridge infrastructure is new, leaving only the towers, main cables and...