Playa Trail - White Sands National Park

According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), a playa is "a dry, vegetation-free, flat area at the lowest part of an undrained desert basin. It is a location where ephemeral lakes form during wet periods, and is underlain by stratified clay, silt, and sand, and commonly, soluble salts." White Sands National Park has several playas, the largest of which is the ephemeral 10-square-mile Lake Lucero. 

The Playa Trail leads to a much smaller playa located 2.3 miles down Dunes Drive from the Entrance Station or 2.6 miles from the Visitor Center. Parallel parking on the north side of Dunes Drive is available with space for about six regular-sized vehicles. The trail wanders through the desert for ¼ mile forming a ½ mile round trip hike. The trail is relatively flat, but it is not ADA compliant due to its soft sandy surface. The park service rates this trail as easy and I agree. We hiked it during our September 2021 visit to the park.

Trailhead information kiosk

Trail surface at the trailhead

Trail marker

View northwest across the dunes to the water tower on the missile range nearly 10 miles away

The playa

A closer view

Another part of the playa

The southern end of the playa

Another view of the dune field

View across the widest part of the playa (about 500 feet)

The Sacramento Mountains

A dry streambed leads to the playa

hoary tansy aster (Machaeranthera canescens)

The tan color shows the playa hasn't completely dried out since the last rain

The Chihuahuan Desert with thunderstorms forming over the Sacramento Mountains

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.

Interdune Boardwalk - White Sands National Park

The Interdune Boardwalk at White Sands National Park is a 945-foot long elevated aluminum boardwalk. The boardwalk keeps people off of the delicate ecosystems prevalent in the interdune transition area between the gypsum sand and the Chihuahuan Desert.

This is a wheelchair-accessible route that we walked on our September 2021 visit to the park.

Trailhead and information kiosk

View toward the west

Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), Soaptree Yucca (Yucca elata),
and Creosote Bush (Larrea tridentate)

The boardwalk

Lavender-leaf sundrop (Calylophus lavandulifolius)

Threadleaf snakeweed (Gutierrezia microcephala)

Skunkbush Sumac (Rhus trilobata)

Shaded benches

Vegetation stabilizes the edges of the dunefield

More vegetation

A blue lizard

Nearly to the end of the boardwalk

Soaptree Yucca and the Sacramento Mountains

More dunes and mountains

Another look at the lizard

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.

Alkali Flat Trail - White Sands National Park

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.

Topographic map with GPS routes of previous hikes in black and the current hike in red

Parking lot

Trailhead

Trail information kiosk

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.

Visitor Center - White Sands National Park

The White Sands Visitor Center has all the features associated with national park visitor centers including an information desk, restrooms, bookstore, museum, and theater. The theater shows a 17-minute park orientation movie entitled A Land in Motion. A gift shop is housed in an adjacent building. In addition to the normal souvenir items, the gift shop also sells and rents sledding disks for use on the dunes. 

Parking is rather limited in front of the visitor center with spaces for three handicap-placarded vehicles, 17 automobiles, and at least 9 RVs in three lanes. However, a lot behind the visitor center and near the gift shop has space for another couple of handicap-placarded vehicles and 23 regular automobiles.

As luck would have it, we visited on a fairly busy Saturday in September 2021.

Front of the visitor center

The gift shop is located behind the visitor center

One of several interpretive signs

Picnic area

Information desk and bookstore

Looking back at the bookstore from the museum entrance

One of several interpretive displays in the museum

Another exhibit

A third exhibit

Prior to social distancing, the theater had seating for about 30

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.