For the Gadling series “World Heritage Site new “Tentative List”: Places to Love” we are covering the 14 sites that have been submitted for possible inclusion as an official World Heritage Site in the United States. The sites will not be posted in order of importance or in the order they appear on the list.
Number 14
Name of Site: White Sands National Monument
Location: 52 miles east of Las Cruces, New Mexico, just north of El Paso, Texas
Reason for importance in a nutshell: White Sands, NM is one of the only places in the world you can see, you guessed it, white sand dunes. Normally, fine gypsum in this form is washed out to sea, but the Tularosa Basin has no such drainage, so the white sand piles up.
Grant’s Take: Anywhere that you can go to play in white sand is automatically pretty sweet in my book. While many of us have been to white sand beaches, they just don’t have the same effect of an entire basin full of sand dunes. It’s a pretty surreal experience, and well worth the visit if you’re in the El Paso area.
Check out some video of the monument here.