Monahans Sandhills State Park, Our last stop in Texas…

Our stay at Monahans Sandhills State Park in Monahans, Texas has been very enjoyable… The park consists of over 3,800 acres of beautiful wind-sculpted nearly white sand dunes. Dunes as high as 70 feet high reside right outside the front door of our RV and the sand is even slowly taking over the picnic tables, grills and shade shelter. We only drove about 50 miles from our last stop in Midland and we couldn’t have picked a better time to move on as Midland has had severe thunderstorms with hail and even had a couple of twisters touch down. Fifty miles west in Monahans we have only had a few drops of rain…. timing is everything!

 

What an enormous challenge these dune must have been for the early Texas pioneers as their wagon trains inched across the state. This sand would have been a major hurdle for these slow moving vehicles of the past… The Native Americans ,though, loved the dunes as they had access to a great water simply by digging a deep hole in the sand between dunes. This water underneath the sands supplies all the nourishment necessary to one of the largest oak forests in the USA. You wouldn’t know it though as the oaks are the Harvard Oaks that rarely get larger than three feet in height’'.

There is a windmill in view outside our door that on occasion will start whirling in the wind but sounds as if it could use a bit of oiling. Along with the bright blue sky, it has been picturesque with the dunes as it's backdrop but it has also been a prop for some beautiful sunset views.  We have found it serves as a locator for the the RV Park as well especially when we have been wandering around the dunes. Hiking the dunes is a blast and provides for a great workout.  There are so many dunes to trek that anytime we were unsure where we were we simply climbed a tall dune and looked for that windmill as our beacon!    

 

There are some nice hiking and biking opportunities in the park but during our stay here over the Memorial Day weekend, the most prevalent activity we observed was sand sledding and sand surfing. We saw numerous children sled down, run back up and slide down again.  When they tired of that, they'd lay down and roll down the hill. This would go on for hours.  After the holiday Sharon and I took a walk in the dunes and found three sand sleds (actually they are called sand discs) left behind by the holiday revelers! Since we hadn’t tried this activity yet we gave it a whirl. All I have to say is that for the little bit of fun you get going down the dunes it is hardly worth the effort it takes to climb back to the top of the dunes… I must be getting old!

We really enjoyed our stay here and if we ever make it back this way we will certainly stop in again. We so enjoyed the serenity offered here and at only $14 per night (if you have the Texas Parks Pass which we do) you just can’t beat it…

     

Well, we are finally moving on out of Texas today and will drive about three hours to our next park just north of Carlsbad, New Mexico.