Tara Melton

Alamogordo Daily News

WHITE SANDS NATIONAL MONUMENT — The world's largest gypsum dune field was quite busy in 2016.

At 275 square miles, the white gypsum dune field is a marker astronauts in space use to know they are flying over New Mexico. White Sands National Monument protects 41 percent of the dune field and the rest is located on White Sands Missile Range.

In 2016, White Sands National Monument recorded 555,793 visitors enter the park – a 12 percent increase from 2015 and the highest visitation since 1998.

The increase in visitors came during the centennial year of the National Park Service (NPS). In celebration of NPS's centennial year, White Sands National Monument hosted a couple of special events in 2016 including a ribbon cutting event to celebrate new interpretive signs on Dunes Drive, a well-attended Full Moon Night series over the summer and a naturalization ceremony in December.

Becoming US citizens at White Sands National Monument

Chief of Interpretation Becky Burghart said the naturalization ceremony was special because it was a great opportunity to show White Sands National Monument, as well as other national parks and monuments, are for the people.

"These parks belong to all citizens – whether you've been a citizen for an hour or your entire lifetime," Burghart said. "Myself and the other park rangers, we're just temporary caretakers of all these amazing places."

Adding to the high visitation was a push made by NPS, through the Every Kid in a Park and Find Your Park programs, to get the younger generations invested in parks. Burghart said it's very important to pass this legacy on in order to keep history alive.

"Parks are more than just these grand landscapes of Yellowstone and Yosemite, those are beautiful landscapes but they also tell the story of who we are. The White House is a National Park, the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell in Pittsburgh – those are National Park units. They share some of our greatest natural resources as well as some of our more challenging stories, whether it's slavery or the Civil Rights Movement."

Burghart said during visits to White Sands National Monument in 2015, visitors spent $25 million with an economic impact to the local economy of $29 million.

"That's a lot of money coming in," Burghart said. "Those are heads in the beds, guests in the restaurants helping Alamogordo, Las Cruces, El Paso and Ruidoso."

In 2016, thousands of people hit the dunes to play Pokémon Go during Full Moon Night or to watch colorful hot air balloons take off during the 25th annual White Sands Balloon Festival.

Pokémon Goers explore White Sands National Monument

Thousands turn out for 25th White Sands Balloon Invitational

Burghart said what sets White Sands National Monument apart from other parks is the unique visitor experience you can craft for yourself.

"Let's say you want to have a Pokémon Go night and be out here with all your friends, you can have that fun group experience," she said. "You can go to a Full Moon Night and be surrounded by 500 of your closest friends listening to music. You can come out with friends and have a picnic on the dunes. If you want solitude, you've had a busy week at work or have just come back from a deployment and need quiet time to decompress, you can have that here. You can go hike the Alkali Flat Trail or backcountry camp by yourself and really have that wilderness solitude experience."

White Sands National Monument is open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. March 12 to April 22. For more information about White Sands National Monument call 479-6124 or visit their website at www.nps.gov/whsa.