Written by Man, it’s been a long time since I’ve been down there. I remember the first time I was there was with my family back in like, 95 or 96 or something. Everything was so fricken’ WHITE. We ran around, looked at things, had some fun. By the time we got back to the car sand was everywhere. Now, do realize that White Sands National park has a law that says “Do not take any of the sand home with you.” This law, is VERY hard to abide by.
Case in point: I had sand IN MY HAIR that I couldn’t get out till I took a shower today. Though, I’m sure this could have been mitigated by wearing an actual HAT and NOT doing Judo flips, I decided to say “screw it” I’m wearing a bandanna for the first time ever. (Not really the first time ever ever, but the first time ever like, out in public, or on a camping trip.)
The next time I went to White Sands ever was my first experience camping there. Totally awesome. We had a large group of people (a good 10-12 or so), and we had campsite #7. Now, there are dunes all over the place, some bigger than others, some steep, some not. Campsite #7, from what I saw (which was actually very little of the total campsite loop), has to have the steepest of the tallest dunes out there. There was a taller one over at campsite 8, but it didn’t have a flat top, NOR did it have has steep an incline to climb up and then jump off again. My fondest memories are of Loch Farrel creating a slide for people and their sleds, and then putting a part of a yucca plant down at the bottom, right after the “jump”. Oh, and taking a running start, then upon landing, tripping, and rolling down the rest of the hill only to hit the bottom, bounce, and then sail OVER a yucca plant, to safety. Good times, good times.
So when I heard we were goin’ back after… 8 years or so I signed up faster than anyone could tell. Memories of jumping off the dune, crawling back up, only to get pushed off again by the bigger kids came flooding back and I just could not wait.
And then the day came. After maybe about 3.5 hours or so of driving, we get to the trail head at about 11. We goof around, have lunch, goof around some more on the near by dunes, and then plod off on what would amount to be a 1 mile hike to the camp site. This hike entailed the high school freshman in the group to complain that we should have stopped at campsite 10 instead so we wouldn’t have to walk so far… Pansy.
So we get to #7 and man, it’s just like I remember! Only… smaller… BUT NO MATTER! I dropped my pack, went STRAIGHT to the top, and then went “YES!” and let out a loud, evil, laugh. This was promptly followed by me setting up my own two-man tent (that only I would be sleeping in, in comfort might I add) faster than either of the other two man groups could set theirs up. Am I bragging now? Yes, I think I am.
We had fun on those dunes. I was one of the first people to get sand in my boots by jumping off the top, then upon landing, sliding down a good foot or two, with my feet getting sucked INTO the sand. What was once a pristine dune (which it’ll take another week to go back to) was now utterly destroyed by man. It was a great feeling.
So we had competitions of king of the hill, we took the sleds up there and rode them down. I did more than a few flips off the top. The other adult got a video of me doing that so I’ll post it when I get a chance. We also got a few good photos of myself and two others taking a running leap off the top, frontal view, though. Not side view but I ain’t one to complain.
Moving on, there was a MAGNIFICENT sunset there that night. Like, holy crapola of all sunsets man. It literally, made me jizz my pants it was so good. Now that’s not to say that I now prefer sunsets over sunrises, however it brought me WAY close to that line of decision. I mean, there were reds, there were oranges, and purples and EVERYTHING looked awesome. Then the fight broke out.
Not a serious one. The ground in front of the dunes, where we were camping was slightly damp and really packed in so you could literally take that, and mush it into a ball and throw it at someone. So we had a sandfight, instead of a snowball fight. This was when I decided it was NOT the smartest thing I’ve done to wear my contacts on a campout. Though, it did end in tragedy. A pair of kids stopped fighting as the three of us continued. One got the bright idea to try and entice them back into the fight by throwing a gob of this sand UNDER their protective rain-fly, through an air vent in the side, and thusly since it’s a fine-mesh that makes up that vent, create a small sand shower on these two kids.
One of them, is a trouble maker. We’ve been dealing with him for a while.
He got angry, and came out of the tent, and started pushing around the kid who threw the sand-ball in the first place. After I forcefully told him to stop, he wouldn’t. I separated the two, and he wouldn’t drop the issue and tried again. This is where I was sadly forced to take him down and prove to him that he isn’t, in fact, top dog of the group. Hopefully that will be the only time I’ve ever had to force someone into a choke-hold to make them stop doing something stupid. Usually speaking loud enough or stepping in the way stops the altercation a good 99% of the time, but alas this was that 1% where it didn’t. *sigh* Interestingly, after that, he was really nice to all the kids. Infer from that what you want.
That night wasn’t a PERFECT night, but the clouds were light enough and the moon full enough that we didn’t need our flashlights. It has been a LONG time since I was able to see my shadow on the ground without the use of an artificial light, during the night time. It was SOOO COOOOL. Oh and then we did night dune jumping and stuff and then just sat on the side chillin’ out for a while before noticing that there was a post in the sand that was… moving…
We were sitting there talking, and as I was looking out over the plane of dunes before me (sitting in a thrown I carved for myself) I noticed that there was a dark spot on the horizon, on the next dune over, that I hadn’t seen before. Then, it disappeared. Then it reappeared. Then it went sideways. Then another one joined it! We all went to investigate, and instead of tiny green men, it was actually a pair of people who were camping out in campsite 9 who decided to go the biggest dune nearest them and start running around and jumping off the edge. We sat around and talked for a little while, then they went to bed. And we followed suit. And I will say this: Sleeping naked in a -20 bag when it’s only about 40 degrees out, is NOT the smartest thing you could ever do… I woke up so many times that night holy cow.
So I wake up the next morning (this morning if you’re reading it the same day I posted it), having already missed the sun-rise AND my first alarm (forgot to take it out of silence mode) I get up, walk around and start eating breakfast. The first thing I notice is that promise of “light rain in the early morning” that we had… WRONG. DEAD. WRONG. It was a glorious morning, there was nary a cloud in the sky. It was so warm by 8:30, (seeing as how I woke up at 7) that I had to literally take off my shirt to stay cool. This of course was NOT helped by the fact that there was NO wind to speak of, and that the white sand REFLECTED THE HEAT back to me. Though, since the sand didn’t absorb the heat, all I had to do was lie back and go “Aaaaaahhhhhh.”
Also, did you know, it’s REALLY fun to run around those dunes (on the soft part that doesn’t slip under your feet) with a pack on? My pack weighed a good 34 pounds (which is nothing if you think about it, considering I usually carry a good 40-45-ish.) I have never purposely run in my life just for the hell of it, until just then. And it was AWESOME.
Oh dear white sands, how I will miss thee until we meet again.
Good times, good times.
