Drove into White Sands National Monument. The place has a wonderland of bright white dunes maybe 30 feet high consisting of gypsum sand. Apparently hard rainstorms in this area wash available gypsum down creeks into a giant basin when the water ponds and promptly evaporates, leaving the gypsum behind to be blown by the prevailing wind into the dunes. The dunes are pretty active because we drove about half of the way from the highway to the end of the road in gypsum sand that now covers the road. It was a bit damp so it splattered all over the truck and dried into little gobs of weak plaster on the fenders, chrome and running boards.
The dogs we saw in the park were quite delighted to run around in the sand but, unfortunately the owners were being bad because unleashed dogs are supposedly verboten. I must have seen 20 dogs and maybe three were leashed so maybe enforcement isn’t a big issue. I liked the look of the unleashed guys best.
We took a spin through Alamagordo after the park and found it just as unremarkable as Deming. They both do have outstanding sunrise and sunset light shows and maybe that is the magnet because Alamagordo proper is plain.
One redeeming feature we did find in Alamagordo was diesel for $2.399/gallon, definitely the cheapest we have seen since June 2014.