White Sands National Monument

This national site kept coming up again and again in recommendations of things to do in New Mexico so we decided to take a detour to see what all the fuss is about.

When you enter the park, you can start to see some white sand building up on the edge of the a road but this is still quite grassy. The deeper you go however, the more pure the sand becomes and you are faced with towering, bright white sand dunes; I would highly recommend bringing sunglasses, you will definitely appreciate them.

We chose to go to the furthest point and walk some of the Alkali trail (a loooong trail that we didn't have time to do fully plus it is recommended not to do in the middle of the day and you have to sign into the trail in case you get lost and don't come back!)

It is really impressive! It's so hard to describe but it's a very surreal and novel place to see if you are ever that direction.

Also, to continue our movie theme, this area is the sight of some filming including the new Star Wars movie and one of the Transformers films.

A couple of things to know

• Apparently if it rains you can get some pretty cool reflective shots so don't let a bad day put you off!
• There is a missile testing site right next to the national monument so occasionally they have to shut the park for a couple of hours. They write when this is on their website so before visiting just check that out! The missile testing site also means that you have to go through a checkpoint so make sure you have your passport handy if you are are not a U.S. National or it can lead to a pretty awkward hunt in the boot for it while two Homeland Security people watch.