It was time to take social distancing to the next level. Not just six feet away from other people, but six feet away from any living thing! Thankfully New Mexico - Land Of Enchantment - once again offered the ideal solution: White Sands National Park.
This is not the biggest or most popular national park, but is probably the most aptly named. Perhaps all the stone in Yellowstone is yellow, I don't know, but I can tell you that all the sand around here is most definitely white. It's a gypsum deposit left behind when a huge prehistoric lake full of minerals washed from the surrounding hills evaporated. The US government liked it so much they decided to turn it into a missile test facility, and then double it up as a national park, because how could that possibly go wrong? It still shuts once or twice a week for things to go bang, and we were constantly buzzed by jets from the nearby Holloman Air Force Base.
The National Parks have certainly got their act together when it comes to Covid, with masks, screens, and distance markers at the ranger station. Once inside, there was nobody. We wandered among the dunes on trails marked by sticks in the shifting sand, looking for wildlife and finding none. This was extremely disappointing as the park boasts both road runners and coyotes! It turns out that Looney Tunes is scientifically accurate.
But the main reason we were here was for the sledging. Yes, for a ridiculous fee you can rent a plastic thing and a lump of wax and slide down the pristine dunes to your heart's content. The biggest challenge is finding the steepest dune, as the monochrome nature of the place makes it impossible to judge heights or distances. The second biggest challenge is keeping powdery sand out of your knickers.
Despite the personal abrasion, much sliding was done and much fun was had. Like many places in the vastness of the USA, White Sands is unlike anywhere else on the planet, a jaw-dropping natural wonder far off the beaten track. The National Parks remain central to the soul of America, a fact seemingly understood even in unlikely places. Long may that continue.
On the way home we visited the largest pistachio in the world, because wonders never cease.
And these are the largest pistachio ice creams in the universe!
