Sand vs. Snow

Since we didn't make it to Saguaro National Park on our trip as we had intended, we decided to at least check out something else cool along the way. Outside of Las Cruces, New Mexico is White Sands National Monument, an enjoyable place to stop if you don't mind the missiles flying overheard. Ok, not really, but there is a missile testing ground nearby and apparently they close the road from time to time so tourists like us don't get blown up accidentally. The monument is a section of the otherwise bleak desert where quartz sand forms a large group of pure white dunes. It made for some beautiful scenery, and some sand sledding - which we weren't able to do last summer when we went to the other sand dunes in Colorado. We didn't have a lot of time to stick around, but the boys did get some sledding in and had a blast doing it. Since we don't often get snow this far south, it was the next best thing!