From space, photographs of southern New Mexico clearly show the startlingly bright expanse of white that we know as White Sands. Tourists from far and wide and natives alike come to ooh and ahh over the snow-like dunes of White Sands National Monument. Like a shy country relative, though, there is a mini-White Sands sequestered away in the northern Chihuahuan Desert.
West of the Guadalupe Mountains in the isolated reaches of Trans-Pecos Texas, some
5,000 acres of glistening white sands beckon. Now mostly within Guadalupe Mountains
National Park, the dune field can be approached from Dell City to its west. As with its
famous cousin, the gypsum originates in nearby dry lake beds and is blown into dunes by
the frequent winds. Separated from other regions of pure gypsum, the area has evolved
some of its own plants suitable for a habitat that's so unfriendly to vegetation.
Twenty-five of the plants inhabiting this small patch of land are believed to be
endemic, occurring nowhere else. Visit this isolated world, but tread lightly—this is
fragile nature at its best.
Contributor: Arthur H. Harris, Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso.
Desert Diary is a joint production of the Centennial Museum and KTEP National Public Radio at the University of Texas at El Paso.