Greetings from White Sands National Park

When I travel on business to attend Technical Committee meetings, speak at conferences, attend Board meetings - I always visit a National Park or State Aquarium. The national parks are soothing and help me get grounded. Some call it Earthing. Some refer to it as a way to get in touch with God or the energy of life. Whatever it is - it works. National Parks are a source of healing. I need them. I need to be able to get to one whever I am in the United States. Please keep them … create more … and ensure they stay as pristine as possible.

Sincerely,
Michelle Collins, Ph.D., P.E, QEP

White Sands National Park

They may look like mounds of snow, but the dunes in this park are made of a rare form of crystallized gypsum. Because gypsum dissolves easily in water, rain would normally wash it away and carry it to the sea. In this part of the Chihuahuan Desert, however, the land forms a basin, trapping the mineral; water evaporates, leaving the gypsum behind, and wind and weather erode it over time into an ocean of glittering sand. The entire dune field is a massive 275 square miles (by comparison, the second-largest gypsum dune field in the world, Cuatro Ciénegas in Mexico, is only 8 square miles). Hiking and sledding over this vast white expanse of powder is a singular, otherworldly experience.

State(s): New Mexico

Established: 1933

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