“I don’t like sand. It’s coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.” - Anakin Skywalker You seem a little on edge. Maybe you just haven’t experienced the fine-grained sands of White Sands? The mineral that forms the dunes of whitesandsnps is about 98 percent pure gypsum. Gypsum sand is considered rare because gypsum is water soluble—it dissolves in water like sugar in iced tea. Is it coarse? Gypsum sand is generally considered to be fine-grained, not coarse; due to its soft nature as a mineral, gypsum typically breaks down into smaller particles, making it more fine-textured than other sands. Fun fact! It’s even rarer to find gypsum sand in the form of dunes. The 275-square miles of dunes at White Sand are comprised of over 4.5 billion tons of gypsum sand. Since the Tularosa Basin and the dunes are fully enclosed, there is no outlet to water of any kind, so the gypsum stays in the park. P.S. Why is the sand at White Sands white? Each grain of gypsum sand is actually cl...