Permanent Residents, Temporary Visitors

The kit fox is North America's smallest, wild canine and the largest full time resident in the dunes

NPS Photo

Quick Facts

Amenities

6 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Parking - Auto, Parking - Bus/RV, Restroom, Restroom - Accessible, Trailhead

You are currently located at Dune Life Nature Trail! As you look up the trail leading into the dunes you will see desert scrubland vegetation on either side of the trail. Perhaps this is greener than you were expecting to see at a place with a name like White Sands. Here towards the front of the drive is a meeting point of two unique ecosystems that allows a diverse community to thrive. On Dune Life Nature Trail just up the path from the parking lot, you’ll find yourself in another world where snow white dunes are dotted with dune adapted plants such as soaptree yuccas, Rio Grande cottonwoods, and hoary rosemary mint. Across the park road towards the Sacramento Mountains to the east, you will see the Chihuahuan Desert scrubland full of low-growing, thorny fauna such as creosote bush, mesquite, ocotillo, and varieties of cacti. In the dunes, you’ll find full-time residents like kangaroo rats, bleached earless lizards, and over 60 species of moth found nowhere else on earth that have become color adapted to the blindingly white environment. The largest predator that lives full time in the dunes is a kit fox which weighs in at a whopping 4 pounds! Animals residing in the dunes are small, compact, and efficient with their water, never taking a drink in their life. But the White Sands community is more than just what’s found in the dunes. On the edge of the dunefield where the sand meets the desert scrubland, the park receives some interesting visitors. Larger mammals like bobcats, coyotes, badgers, and even porcupines that couldn’t survive in the dunes year-round make their way into the dunes to get the resources they need and then return to their homes in the scrubland. These temporary visitors to the dunes are no less of a part of the dunefield community whether their impact is big or small. Your visit to White Sands today is also a temporary one where you might come to hike, sled, or enjoy a picnic and then return home with memories to last a lifetime. Whether you’ve come from near or far to be here today by taking the time to explore White Sands you have become part of the White Sands community!