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| The Playa Trail heads to a dry lakebed that fills with water after rainfall at White Sands National Park. NPS photo. |
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| Playa Trail aerial map. Click for larger version. |
The 0.5-mile out and and back Playa Trail by far is the park’s easiest hike. Utterly flat, it avoids the dune’s deep sands that feet sink into.
To reach the trailhead, from U.S. Hwy. 70 take Dunes Drive into the park. Leave your vehicle in the first pullout on the road’s right side.
The trail leaves from the pullout’s center heading north into the Chihuahuan Desert scrubland at the edge of the vast gypsum dunes. In short order, it reaches the east side of a small playa and continues along its shore.
A playa is a low-lying area that fills with rainwater from storms. Most of the time, though, it is a dry lakebed.
Playas are a common feature of deserts, and there are several others at White Sands. Lake Lucero at 10 square miles is the park’s largest playa and the current source of its gypsum sand. The playa on this trail, however, is the only one in the park that can be hiked, though sometimes ranger-led tours head out to Lake Lucero.
Cryptobiotic crust
During summer, monsoon-like rains fill the playa with water. That instantly draws animals to it, and creates a lush new mini-ecosystem.
Even when the playa is dry, the area is not barren. A cryptobiotic crust grows around the playa atop the desert soil. The crust consists of lichens, algae and other microorganisms, and are the darker brown and black areas on the tawny sand.
Without this crust, the sandy soil never would have enough nutrients for other plants to grow. They also help stabilize the sand, and by doing so give plants a layer to take root in.
While the dry lake bed may be tempting to walk into, stay on the trail. Footsteps easily can damage the fragile cryptobiotic crust; in the harsh desert environment, it sometimes needs up to seven years to fully regenerate.
Lush grassland
The Sacramento and Sierra Blanca mountains on the distant horizon emphasize how this is a land of extremes. Even in summer when temperatures on the desert floor top a 100 degrees, the highest point on the horizon, Sierra Blanca Peak, can be snow-capped. The peak is southern New Mexico’s tallest mountain at nearly 12,000-feet elevation.
Five interpretive panels are located along the trail. At the end of the trail is one that imagines how this playa looked a mere 10,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age. The playa then was in a verdant grasslands, and giant creatures – Columbian mammoths, lions, ground sloths, dire wolves, camels and saber-toothed cats – all gathered at its shores.
After taking in the time-traveling sign, retrace your steps back to the pullout.
The trail is entirely exposed to the sun, so be sure to don sunscreen, sunglasses and sunhat. Though the route is short, always bring water.
