The city is about 20 minutes away from White Sands National Monument. There are no designated campsites set up within the park but, if you were up for hiking and setting up camp, they do have special permits you could apply for.
WHERE WE STAYED
Let's be real here, this was day 2 of our trip. Glamping in a safari tent the night before was not indicative for what was to come. Which means that this was the first night inside our tent. To say I was nervous goes without saying. We made a reservation at a KOA Campground. We paid $23 for a tent site that according to Yelp included clean showers, bathrooms and a pool (which came in handy post sand)! Yelp, has yet to steer me wrong and nailed it on the head here. We didn't know it at the time but, KOA was going to be our BFF for the entire journey.
We arrived at Alamogordo around noon, checked into KOA, set up camp, walked around the grounds and then quickly headed back out towards White Sands.
WHAT WE DID
A Houston blogger I follow eloped to White Sands late last year. I was blown away by the beauty of the pictures. But, figured that thanks to strategic cropping, editing, etc. the place could not possibly be that beautiful. Nope. It actually was even more than the pictures showed. No single picture or video will ever do justice to this place. It truly is one of those, "you have to see it to believe it".
Everything I had read about the park, cautioned two things: come early (or late) to beat the heat and bring at least 2 gallons of water per person. We followed one tip: brought 4 gallons of water but...arrived in the middle of the day.
Was it hot as balls? Yes.
Was it a blast? YES.
Would we do it again? YES!
The KOA let us check out
Sadly, at some point during the climbs we lost our wax cube. We both shrugged its loss off but, it turns out that if you want to slide down the dunes: wax is crucial.
Originally we had planned to spend the day at the park from sun up to sundown but, it turned out that the day we were there a missile test was scheduled. Therefore, all visitors had to evacuate the park by 7pm. If there was one place that you could picture yourself easily getting lost in, it's here. Everything looks the same. The markers don't really do much to help orient one's self. There were times where we would go down one dune, up another, turn around and realize, "oh crap! We lost sight of the truck! Was it this way or was it that way?". The threat of being stranded in the desert while war weapons were being discharged had us constantly reining back the urge to venturing further out.
I would love to come back in the winter and relive our day. Except that this time, we would keep better track of our wax and we would stay late so as to experience a sunset from atop one of the dunes.
WHAT WE ATE
After the park, we were sweaty and extremely sandy. Fran actually packed a dust buster and I teased him mercilessly when it was added to the camp stack. However, boy did that thing come in handy! If not for its sucking capabilities, we would have been sitting on sand the rest of the trip. As it was, certain nooks and crannies in the truck still have evidence of our time there.
Across the street from the KOA campground was a custard shop, Caliche's. It was the perfect post sand surfing treat. The 50s vibe and soundtrack only furthered its sweetness.
The morning we left Alamogordo, we stopped by a diner on our way out called, Waffle and Pancake Shoppe. Our waitress was super witty and delivered mouthwatering waffles. They had this subtle nutty quality to them that was to die for!
VERDICT
Fran and I have already talked about coming back to White Sands in the future. We would love to camp out in Big Bend National Park for a day or two then head over to the monument before hitting up Marfa on the way back to Houston. It would definitely be at least a week long trip but, this year we have a week off for Thanksgiving so...who is coming with us?!
Pick us!
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