I have long heard about this place but I had not been close enough to visit it before. I made sure I got to it this trip. It is national park site #117 for me.

I ended up visiting this place sooner in the trip than I expected. I tried to work out a route in which I visited here right after Las Cruces. But nothing really fit while still visiting every place I had planned. However, the night before I was to go to EL Paso I learned that there was to be an event at the Sun Bowl called Monster Jam (something to do with cars) starting at 2:00 pm. And, until I was driving to El Paso, I was unaware that the city is the only part of Texas that is in the Mountain Time Zone (which makes sense for it). So, either I was going to have to miss getting to the Sun Bowl (and probably the adjacent sign for UTEP) due to crowds, or, I had to rearrange my schedule somehow and drop/skip something. I decided that (A) since Big Bend was a five-hour thing in of itself -- 2 hours down there in the dark and then right back to where I started in Alpine, and, (B) since I was nervous about driving there in the dark with reportedly so much wildlife around that I would have to drive 45 MPH the whole time, and, (C) I learned the night before that the big cliffs at the Santa Elena Canyon Overlook that I wanted to walk into are actually on the Mexico side and I did not bring my passport. So Big Bend lost.

I was impressed at how pure white the sand is, very similar to what I recall from many years ago on the beaches at Pensacola. When I touched it, it felt very fine and soft and smooth. And with the bright sun, it was like looking out across a fresh layer of snow on a sunny day. The sand covered the road at some points to make it look like snow on the road.