White Sands National Monument

The world's largest gypsum dune field, the 275—square—mile dunes of White Sands National Monument are a geologic oddity more than 250 million years in the making. Located in Southern New Mexico, the popularity of the monument draws nearly half a million visitors each year to the National Park Service's southwestern region. The area is protected from encroachment by the boundaries of the US Army's White Sands Missile Range and houses no less than 144 species of birds, 20 unique mammals, and ...