The Alkali Flat Trail is a five-mile loop through the gypsum dunes of White Sands National Park near Alamogordo, New Mexico. I've written about our previous hikes in May 2015 and March 2018 when the park was a national monument. On this trip, however, we had limited time and just wanted to give our daughter an initial exposure to White Sands. In addition, the temperature was a bit too high for a long hike as it was already in the upper 70s by 10 AM and headed to the mid-90s.
The trailhead is located near the northwest corner of the loop on Dunes Drive. This portion of the road is hard-packed sand just barely above the water table, so driving on it is not an issue for stopping or going. There are no hills on the sand-surfaced portion of the roadway and the surface ruts are smoothed out daily by a motor grader operator.
We followed the trail clockwise for ½ mile before turning around and retracing our steps. Even though the parking lot was busy and several people were sledding near the trailhead, we found solitude just a few minutes into our walk with not another soul in sight. We ended up climbing a couple of dunes each direction on our hike with each being about 20 feet high. We visited in September 2021.
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| Topographic map with GPS routes of previous hikes in black and the current hike in red |
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| Parking lot |
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| Trailhead |
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| Trail information kiosk |
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| Trail marker |
Below are pictures of the white gypsum dunes, some with the San Andres Mountains in the background..
An entry fee of $25 per vehicle, $20 per motorcycle, or $15 per person is valid for seven consecutive days at White Sands National Park. Other fee payment options include the America the Beautiful - National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands passes including the Annual Pass ($80), Senior Pass ($80 for a lifetime), Access Pass (free with a documented disability), and Military Annual Pass (free for active-duty personnel). Also available is a White Sands National Park Annual Park Pass for $45.
The White Sands National Park website is https://www.nps.gov/whsa/index.htm.
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