This is White Sands National Park. Like no place else on Earth, these glistening
white sands of gypsum cover 275 square miles of desert. It's one of the world's great natural
wonders, and it's been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. It was one of our
first stops of our New Mexico road trip and it almost didn't happen at all.
Just, like, nothing but cloud out there. A major sand cloud. No, stop.
But we were determined to wait it out to have that amazing sunset experience on these white
sands plus five other things that I just had to experience.
One, I really want to know how white is the sand. Apparently, it's pure gypsum, so how
white are we talking here?
My mask is, like, white-white, right? Let's go compare it.
Number two, I want t make a sand angel. Number three, I want to sled down the biggest, baddest
dune I could find, and I really want to get some speed on it. Number four, I want to find
a really secluded area.
We really found the perfect spot over there for sunset that, number five, we can watch
an epic sunset at. Secluded area to be shared in the show notes via GPS. Are you ready?
We're in the park now and straight ahead I can see, like, all this white stuff in the
air. I'm pretty sure it's sand or, like, dust. It is windy, folks. Oh, man, it's dusty. Oh,
here we go. This is like the [inaudible 00:01:42]. Whoa, it's windy. Something I didn't realize
was true of New Mexico in the spring. Apparently, it's the windy time. I had no idea but I hope
it's going to die down. Being on a giant sand dune having sand flung at your body at warp
speed is painful, so I'm just hoping...
Garrett: We'll be okay.
Kristin: How do you know?
Garrett: I don't know.
Kristin: So how white is this sand, Garrett?
Garrett: It's very bright.
Kristin: I can't even look at it.
Garrett: It's very bright. Bring sunglasses.
Kristin: Yeah, if you come here, bring sunglasses for sure. I thought it was going to be, like,
white-white which is not to say I'm disappointed. It's still cool.
Garrett: It's pretty white.
Kristin: It's pretty white but it's not like...
Garrett: It's white, it's white.
Kristin: Okay. Okay, I think we can agree my mask is, like, white-white, right? What
do you say?
Garrett: Yeah.
Kristin: Okay, let's go compare it.
Garrett: It's going to be similar.
Kristin: It's going to be similar but not the same. Okay. There you could see now the
difference. We did debate what kind of shoes to wear. Done some research and I've seen
that there are three types of rattlesnakes in White Sands National Park, and one type
of non-dangerous but painful, a scorpion. You're wearing shoes?
Garrett: I don't know yet. It's going to be a split-minute decision.
Kristin: And I think I'm going to test the whole no footwear thing because shoes are
foot prison.
There are three types of rattlesnakes.
Yep, shoes are foot prison.
It's so crazy. There is water under here. My foot... I'm digging down a little bit.
It's wet. You think that there's, like, nothing out here. It's wet.
Garrett: Grab the sides and lean in.
Kristin: Let's do it again.
Kristin: That's the one.
Yeah, this is the highest.
I just ate so much sand.
Whoo, it's really windy and it hurts.
Got a little sandy. Little bit. I'm going to be finding sand in places for a long time yet.
I keep getting foiled by wind in the desert lately. Yeah, it happened to me last week, too. Hopefully, it dies down.
It wasn't really forecasted so I guess you can never really know though.
Oh, man, the wind picked back up. It's just like nothing but cloud out there. It's like moving the car. It's crazy.
Garrett: Sand cloud. Kristin: Yeah, major sand cloud. No, stop.
The wind died down? Garrett: It did. Kristin: Yay. All right.
Garrett: Bright though.
Kristin: You can finish handing my ass to me in this game, and then we'll go.
Garrett: Okay.
Kristin: Gosh, I really thought for a moment that it was going to be just totally ruined,
this thing that I'd been wanting to do for so long, but look it's so perfect now and
the wind is not blowing even a little bit.
Kristin: We really found the perfect spot over there for sunset and it's not even that
far from the parking lot. As far as dunes go, these are very easy to climb. Like, the
ones in Namibia are really hard to climb. These are smaller and firmer. There's the
water table under here which makes it a lot, yeah, denser.
Kristin: All's well that ends well, Babe.
Garrett: It was good.
Kristin: Yeah. We did all five things that I wanted to do, including seeing an epic sunset.
Garrett: We avoided a sandstorm.
Kristin: Kind of.
Garrett: A little bit.
Kristin: I'm excited to do more things, like, in this area. There's a lot more to see and
do.
Garrett: Linda's coming by.
Kristin: Linda. You guys, we just arrived at the Airbnb and it is so cute. You have
to see it.
This caseta is adorable. I feel like we're in an old... It's all made of stone. I feel like we're in an old, like, monastery. This seems like it's got to be super old and
that they worked it into the construction. And there is a super old church just right
down the street, so I feel like this could be a really old building. We're going to have
to ask them. This is a little kitchen area. We can totally make do with this. We have
a fridge. We have a microwave, and there is... Where did we go? Sprouts.
Garrett: Sprouts.
Kristin: Sprouts. So they have a lot of premade food which was really convenient. As long
as I have coffee and a fridge, I can make do for sure. The bedroom, that was really
cool. Our stuff already exploded around it a little bit, but look how cute this is. Have
you jumped on the bed yet? Okay, ultimate test. This is super nice. I feel like this
place has so much character. Like, the... What do you call this? The handwash basin,
the bowl?
Garrett: The basin.
Kristin: It's gold, and I love gold.
Austin: I love gold.
Kristin: Check the shower out. Super nice. Oh, there's like a... Look at this, Babe.
It's like the New Mexico symbol in here. Even the soap dispenser is pretty and on theme.
I love this place. The vibe is really nice, isn't it? And all of that is pretty special
but I booked this for the hot tub.
And the value is actually amazing. I mean, it's a bit out of town which is probably nice. It makes it quiet, but it was less than $100
per night all in all the fees in. And it's totally on solar, which is cool.
And there's a puppy which is also cool. Done worked up an appetite.
Picked this place because the ratings were really good but also it had French toast.
It had really cool-looking French toast, and I'm carb-loading today. So, yeah.
Oh, mm-mm.
Garrett: Banana pancake.
Kristin: It's like a banana donut but with cake batter. It's so good and gooey. People
have died in these mountains.
It's hot out here. It's about 10 degrees hotter today than it was yesterday plus it was windy
AF yesterday and you're on this, like, gravel doing a very steady incline. That is beautiful.
Fuck this gravel but that is beautiful. I smell terrible. You just nodded.
Garrett: Yes.
Kristin: Rude.
What an interesting choice for a homestead. I guess it's near a water
source though.
Garrett: Maybe in there.
Kristin: Yeah, let's see what else there is. It feels so unbelievably hot. Even the yucca
are dying out here, and they're, like, built for this. And every step I take, I'm sliding
back. If it's 85 and it feels 95, what does it feel like when it's 95? I don't want to
know. Crazy. Apparently, this was a hotel. Oh, that's what it used to look like, and
this is what it looks like now.
This is cool. I didn't know actually know that this was going to be here. What do you think?
Garrett: It is cool.
Kristin: Yeah. Wow.
Really cool tracks. Wow. You've got a long way to go, bud.
Garrett: I know. Where are you?
Kristin: You have to smell these. It smells great, right?
Garrett: It does smell good.
Kristin: Oh, my gosh. These are amazing.
Garrett: We need to make a camera that can smell.
Kristin: What is this? It smells like gardenia and it looks like it has sage leaves.
Garrett: And it grows in the sand in New Mexico.
Kristin: Look at this. Look at you. Hi, cutie. It's like, "Don't think for a second that
you can stop."