White Sands National Park in New Mexico is a park of sand, but not regular regular beach sand silica SiO2 as it is everywhere else on Earth, but gypsum CaSO4. It does not feel like regular sand. It is more solid and easier to walk on.

The best part of the park is hidden deep inside the park 3-5km north from the public park road. You have to walk in. However, you will be well rewarded for the effort. White sands in the areas near to the park road has nice white dunes, but the valleys are all filled with scruffy desert plants. Starting 3km directly north from the park road, the plants disappear from the inter dune valleys. The landscape turns to completely white sand everywhere. Much more interesting to look at.

If you decide to trek it up here, be careful. The dunes all look the same after a short time, and the interesting all white sands area butts up against the military reservation at about 5.5 km north of the park road. Myself, I took 2 GPS units, a tablet and a hand unit Garmin, so that I knew where I was going and should not be going, and also for safety in case one of units had a problem.