Trinity Test Site & White Sands National Park
Day Ten - Best of the Southwest - 2023
A visit to the Trinity Test Site before heading south to see the magnificent White Sands National Park.
1. Trinity Test Site #1
Trinity Test Site was the location of the world’s first nuclear device explosion on 16 July 1945, effectively ushering in the atomic age.
Waking very early in the morning, we made the hour-long drive to the Stallion Gate of the U.S. Army’s White Sands Missile Range in order to queue up for the opportunity to visit the Trinity Test Site. As the name suggests, this is the location where the Trinity Test occurred, which was the first detonation of a nuclear weapon. This was part of the larger Manhattan Project organized specifically for the purpose of fielding a weapon of this design. Work on the Manhattan Project was overseen by U.S. Army officer Leslie Groves, and the U.S. worked in collaboration with the U.K. and Canada at over 30 locations which conducted highly stovepiped research, engineering, construction, and testing. Only a few weeks after the Trinity Test -on 6 and 9 August 1945- the only use of nuclear weapons in war occurred at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, respectively.
I’m not going to dive too deeply in the history of the Manhattan Project here, but I will touch upon why this site was selected for the test of the “gadget” (the name used for the nuclear test device). The requirements for the test location were simple: remote, relatively flat, and unpopulated. Many sites were considered in the American Southwest for this purpose, but the northern end of the Alamogordo Bombing Range (soon renamed White Sands Proving Ground) had the added benefit of military secrecy, and was ultimately chosen.
The primary drawback of the site was that approximately half a million people lived close enough to the test site to feel or even see its effects. Naturally, secrecy dictated no disclosure about the nuclear device be made, so no residents were evacuated. In fact, a press release attributing the event to a magazine explosion was provided, with details about the actual event only coming after the detonations in Japan. Of course, this decision had unwanted effects for the people living in close proximity to the test site, although the overall effects of radioactive fallout on such persons is debated to this day.
2. Trinity Test Site #2
The test site’s location is deep within the U.S. Army’s White Sands Missle Range, and -as such- has restricted access; visitation is only allowed on the first Saturday in April and the third Saturday of October each year.
Upon reaching the Stallion Gate, there was about an hour-long wait to get through the security checkpoint before proceeding to the parking area. Once there, visitors could visit the obelisk marking the detonation site, as well as visit the McDonald Ranch House, where the final version of the bomb was assembled.
The detonation site is fairly spartan beyond the obelisk. There is a buried silo which houses vast quantities of Trinitite -radioactive soil fused into glass from the explosion- as well as a series of photographs of the test and information placards.
Due to time considerations, we did not head to the McDonald Ranch House. This was the only structure surrounding the test site, and -as mentioned- it was where the device itself was pieced together. It was also the epicenter of the temporary village constructed here to house the approximately 250 persons working on the final stages of testing, from building the 100 foot / 30 meter drop test tower to various bunkers. 425 persons witnessed the initial test at 5:29AM on 16 July.
3. Trinity Test Site #3
The April 2023 event registered 3,877 visitors.
Those who know me or have visited this site in the past understand I have an interest in “dark tourism”, visiting places associated with grief or tragedy. The Manhattan Project is perhaps the most controversial endeavor of the 20th century, and the significance of the Trinity Test Site makes it worthy of preservation. Visiting such sites such can be emotionally overwhelming and thus provide great impact to one’s understanding and appreciation of the event(s) which occurred there. But, as with all dark tourism sites, preservation should not be an excuse for admiration.
Unfortunately, visitors often don’t treat locations with the reverence they deserve. My visit to Trinity Test Site was one of those circumstances. Let me be frank: I don’t think smiling selfies next to the memorial obelisk at Trinity’s ground zero is appropriate and there is no justification which will convince me otherwise.
To make matters more trying, the constant queue of visitors taking their turn made even a moment of solemn reflection a near impossibility. This photograph was taken with great care to capture an idealized state but is far from representative of my overall experience.
I don’t want you to think this applies to all visitors to Trinity, and there were many respectful visitors who struck very tasteful poses by the obelisk, as you can see in the photograph preceding this one. I am also not saying you can’t enjoy a visit to a place like the Trinity Test Site on some level. All I am saying is there is a time and place to be jovial, but a visit to Trinity Test Site should not one.
Somewhat soured but also humbled by my visit to Trinity Test Site, we needed to get on the road and travel to the opposite end of the White Sands Missile Range to White Sands National Park. Underscoring how big this military facility is, it took 2.5 hours to drive along its eastern perimeter to arrive at the park!
4. White Sands National Park #1
White Sands National Monument was declared in January 1933; it was rededicated as White Sands National Park in December 2019.
We arrived in early afternoon at our last stop on the Best of the Southwest Road Trip, White Sands National Park. The amazing sand dunes here were formed by the process of gypsum being weathered from nearby mountains and transported by winds to the high, dry desert of the Tularosa Basin. The gypsum crystals are then blown further to form various types of dunes (barchan, transverse, star, and parabolic to name a few).
But, just because the environment is hot and dry doesn’t mean there isn’t wildlife - in fact, over 40 native species live here (although the odds of you seeing them are incredibly low during the day.)
There are many short hiking trails you can explore and a couple of boardwalks - you can even rent a saucer sled if you wish to “ride” the dunes. We opted to do some hiking, stopping at the Dune Life Nature Trail, the Interdune Boardwalk, and the Alkali Flat Trail.
5. White Sands National Park #2
White Sands National Park is the biggest gypsum deposit in the world. It is made up of over 4.5 billion tons of gypsum.
Just how much gypsum is that? Well, if you were covert all that into gypsum drywall board, you would be able to cover over 7% of the Lower 48 U.S. states with a sheet (if my really, really rough math is correct).
This potential white gold mine didn’t escape the attention of prospectors, so it was fortunate that an Alamogordo man named Tom Charles almost single-handedly took up the task of securing White Sands National Monument status in the 1930s instead of letting the area be turned into a massive strip mine. As mentioned, it wasn’t until 2019 that White Sands would earn its National Park designation.
The National Park doesn’t cover the entirety of the white gypsum sheet which covers southern New Mexico. A large part of the site is on territory of the aforementioned White Sands Missile Range, which is used for both military and civilian purposes. In fact, STS-3 - the third space shuttle mission - landed at White Sands in 1982. There was so much gypsum dust in Space Shuttle Columbia after landing that no other shuttle landed there … and astronauts complained for years about gypsum dust floating around in the orbiter while in space!
But enough about gypsum - thirteen more photographs of White Sands National Park follow.
6. White Sands National Park #3
7. White Sands National Park #4
8. White Sands National Park #5
9. White Sands National Park #6
10. White Sands National Park #7
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11. White Sands National Park #8
12. White Sands National Park #9
13. White Sands National Park #10
14. White Sands National Park #11
15. White Sands National Park #12
16. White Sands National Park #13
17. White Sands National Park #14
18. White Sands National Park #15
As the sun began to set across the New Mexico sky, it was time for this adventure to end. And it was fitting that this adventure end at White Sands, since this may have been the first National Parks site I visited way back when I was a toddler. At that time, my grandparents lived in nearby Truth or Consequences, and my family did a visit. Naturally, I don’t remember anything about this journey, but all the same I am glad I made it “back” here. And I hope to make it back again one day as this is one of the most photogenic sites of the National Parks, in my opinion. Let’s just hope it doesn’t take another three decades or so between visits this time….
