Out West | Part 3: Mars

We hadn’t planned on White Sands. One of us saw it on the map, casually mentioned it between sips of gas station coffee, and within minutes we were rerouting the GPS. That’s how most of our decisions went on this trip—spontaneous, chaotic, and usually the best idea we’d had all day.

As we rolled into southern New Mexico, the landscape started to shift. The dry, tan desert gave way to something we couldn’t believe was real—blinding white dunes, stretching for miles, looking more like snow than sand. It didn’t feel like we were in New Mexico anymore. It didn’t feel like Earth, honestly. More like we’d landed on Mars… if Mars had 100-degree weather and a gift shop.

We parked the RV, kicked off our shoes, and sprinted into the dunes like kids who’d never seen sand before—which, in this form, we really hadn’t. It was cool to the touch, impossibly soft, and somehow even brighter in person than in the photos.

We climbed dunes, rolled down them, played football until there was sand clogging our ears. One of us attempted a backflip and ate it hard, sand in every crevice imaginable. We were laughing so hard we could barely breathe. No cell service, no clocks—just a crew of friends, a ridiculous RV, and miles of white silence.

That night, pulling away in the RV, barefoot and sandy with sore legs and full hearts, someone in the back said, “How did we not know this place existed?”

We didn’t have an answer.

But we knew one thing for sure: White Sands wasn’t just a detour. It was a highlight.