Learn about some of the best things to do in White Sands NM for your next motorcycle trip through the southwest United States.
The Skinny: Things To Do in White Sands NM
- What: White Sands Missile Range Museum, 350 Savanna Ave, White Sands, New Mexico 88002, 575-678-2250 and White Sands National Park, 19955 US-70 West, Alamogordo, New Mexico 88310, 575-479-6124. The WSMR Museum is free; entrance to White Sands National Park is $25 per car or $20 per motorcycle.
- How to Get There: From Alamogordo, head south on US Highway 70. From Las Cruces, it’s north on the same road.
- Best Kept Secrets: Nearby Alamogordo and Las Cruces, New Mexico, are both interesting towns with fabulous dining opportunities. Be sure to check out Alamogordo’s Space Museum if you pass through town.
- Don’t Miss: Just about any Mexican restaurant in Las Cruces.
- Avoid: Not checking the weather before you leave (it can get cold in the winter), forgetting to bring a camera and speeding.
- More Info: WSMR Museum - U.S. Army Center of Military History and White Sands National Park (U.S. National Park Service)
- More Photos: WSMR - The ExhaustNotes Blog and White Sands National Park - The ExhaustNotes Blog
This story takes you to two destinations: the White Sands Missile Range (known locally as “Wizmer”) Museum, and White Sands National Park. You can easily take in both in a day. I’ve done so twice; once in the mid-1970s when stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, and again most recently for this article. White Sands National Park is 15 miles south of Alamogordo, New Mexico, and the WSMR Museum is approximately 30 miles further south.
The WSMR Museum displays missiles and other military gear just inside the installation’s main gate. WSMR was created in July 1945 at the end of World War II, when the U.S. and the Soviet Union recruited former German Nazi-party scientists to advance their space programs. Many were sent to WSMR, along with a hundred German V2 rockets. We cut our space program’s teeth on them, launching two-thirds of our V2 stash and studying the rest before we started designing and testing American versions. Back in the 1970s, you could just drive onto the WSMR military post and visit the missile park. Due to post-9/11 heightened security precautions at all US military installations, visitors must park outside the main gate, show ID to the security staff, complete a form declaring non-terrorist intent, and get permission to walk onto the base. From the main gate, it’s maybe a couple hundred yards to get to the missile park and the WSMR Museum. The indoor displays, including an old V2, were locked up when we visited, so all we could see was the stuff on display outside. But that was outstanding – at least until the skies opened up and the rain came down. The photo ops were fantastic: Military missiles, gun systems and aircraft were highlighted against the bright blue New Mexico sky, with a bit of cloud cover to soften the shadows. We had a blast (figuratively speaking, of course).
Our second stop of the day was White Sands National Park. It’s part of New Mexico’s Tularosa Basin and it looks how one might imagine the Sahara Desert would look, with rolling 30-foot dunes of white sand as far as the eye can see. The sand is actually gypsum, a relatively common mineral used in many products, including wallboard and beer. Gypsum is rarely encountered as sand, though, and White Sands National Park is an unusual natural wonder that contains the world’s largest gypsum dune field. The White Sands area started to form 280 million years ago when gypsum settled on the Permian Sea floor. When the Permian Sea evaporated, the gypsum remained. The gypsum sand dunes’ evolution and formation continue to this day; the dunes continuously move around due to wind and erosion. I can attest to that, as the area looked quite a bit different on my recent visit than it did 50 years ago.
