[wind]
- MICHAEL SMITH: The dunes change visibly.
They are constantly moving, changing shape.
It is the only section of this type of dune field
in all of Texas.
It is serene.
A lot of people come here over and over for the peace and quiet
that you get out here.
You get away from the tracks and away from the people
and it almost feels like you're the only one
that's ever been here.
[dramatic music]
It's a little bit surreal to be out here in middle of the dunes
that are unlike anything anywhere else in Texas
or most of the country for that matter.
[dramatic music]
My name is Michael Smith.
I'm a superintendent and park police officer
for Monahans Sandhills State Park.
We are in far West Texas, not very far from Midland-Odessa
and the corner of New Mexico in the Permian Basin.
[dramatic music]
This sand literally is an immigrant from
northern New Mexico and Colorado.
The theory goes that it was ground very small and round
under the last ice age and then settled in the Permian Basin.
The wind can't blow it back out, or doesn't often blow it out,
but it does keep swirling it around down in the bowl.
There are plants and animals that exist here that
don't exist anywhere in Texas.
It is a place to be able to find dunes sagebrush lizards.
The sand itself is very different than any sand,
both physically and geologically.
[dramatic music]
[horse whinnies]
We have about an 800-acre area on the park
set aside specifically for equine use.
There's three campsites and a day use area available.
They should bring plenty of water and be careful
of their horses, but we would encourage people to
come and ride and explore this unique area.
Tents, RVs, any camping of any sort is strongly encouraged.
[kite flapping]
It's very quiet, very peaceful.
[kids shouting]
The flip side of serene is duning or sledding.
We rent and sell disks and toboggans
to slide down the dunes on.
Young kids love this park,
and children of all ages, they love to play in the sand.
It does not matter to them that there's no beach,
that there's no water.
- MAN: It's fun.
- GIRL: The snowboard was really hard to do.
- Pretty exciting times with it.
- But my favorite thing is the disk, or just rolling down.
[laughs]
- MICHAEL: Water surfing we cannot provide,
but we have all the sand surfing one could ever want.
[kids chatter]
Most folks don't even realize when they drive
from the headquarters at the front of the park
to the sand dunes they come here to see,
they're driving through a portion of one of the
largest oak forests in the world.
It's about 50,000 acres altogether and just a little
wee bit shorter than most of them.
At maturity, about 3 or 4 feet.
The shin oak provides habitat for most of the animals
that live here.
It provides a place for the smaller ones to hide
and provides food for both large and small.
We have a lot of flowers here.
Some of the same ones that you would see in the Hill Country
and then some that are unique to a drier climate.
It is a great place to study tracks, to study animals.
When the wind comes, it can wipe all the tracks away,
and so the next day you can see what passed in the night,
check out the tracks.
The bugs leave a unique track, lizards, snakes.
[dramatic music]
- I also like the history of this place.
It has been barrier and refuge since prehistoric man.
And after them, the Jumano Indians, and after them,
the Apaches and Comanches would find refuge in these dunes,
a seemingly impassable, unfriendly place,
that because of the seeps,
the naturally occurring water features here,
actually provided everything a person needed to live.
[dramatic music]
[train horn blows]
If not for the railroad, there might not have ever
been the town of Monahans.
Monahans is named after John Monahan who dug a well
for the T and P railroad.
And it became Monahan's well and the town of Monahans.
[steam blows]
It became a water stop for steam engines.
It was a rugged area, far from any development
back when the railroad came through, and then eventually,
Bankhead Highway, Route 1,
the first all-weather coast to coast highway
came through here, and right next to Bankhead Highway,
Interstate 20 was created, and so it's still an area
that draws people from very, very far away.
[dramatic music]
Where we're standing is a mile and a half off the highway,
so what most people come to see,
you don't see from the highway.
You have to get off the road and take some time.
I feel like preserving this particular very,
very unique ecosystem to Texas is extremely important.
There is a lot to see here.
I have been pleasantly surprised virtually every day
since living here.
[dramatic music]
Some of the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets
I have ever seen have been right here.
They just open up.
The entire sky is full of color, it's stunningly beautiful.
There's nothing in Texas that you can compare this to.
You just have to come check it out yourself.
[dramatic music]