Like No Place Else

On day five, on our out west trip, we made it to White Sands National Park. White Sands is in the state of New Mexico. It took a long time to travel to the glistening white sandy expanse.

We got out of the cars in the huge dune field and felt the white sand. It was made of gypsum crystals chopped up into little pieces by the wind. It also felt so cool to the touch and didn’t stick to you.

Then we went to the visitor center and bought some sleds and wax so the sleds would slide better. Now we could slide down the sand dunes. Next, we drove to the boardwalk area and walked on the boardwalk far out into the sand.

The dunes were huge and were hard to climb, but we made it to the top and with our sleds. We slid down. It was faster than I thought it would be. It was so fun.

All the boys hid behind the sand dunes with their guns and pretended to shoot one another. Moriah, Galilee, and I played with them too. We all would crawl up the dunes and fire our cap guns. We had a wonderful time.

Some animals live in the white desert, like the kit fox. It could be chasing a mouse, like maybe an Apache pocket mouse in search for food. We looked for their prints in the sand, and we saw some prints. We thought it might have been a kit fox.

There are also plants living in the White Sands desert. A soap tree yucca has to grow taller than the sand to keep new leaves above the sand. But after the wind blows the sand dune away, a yucca will soon fall over and die.

My favorite part of White Sands was sliding down the sand dunes. We did a lot there. It was also Moriah’s tenth birthday, and she had her party under a round picnic shelter. Her cake was crafted out of Little Debbie cakes. It was a very fun way to celebrate her birthday!

At the end of the day, we saw a beautiful sunset. All of the orange, red, and yellow mixed together to create a wonderful picture of twilight. On the sand dunes, it made you feel closer to the amazing picture God painted.

Our stop at White Sands National Park was a real adventure. The two hundred seventy-five square mile site is one of the world’s great natural wonders. We had a terrific time at the world’s largest gypsum dune field while we were there. It was like no place else!

~Unique