White Sands National Park - 2020's Newest Addition to the Park Roster!
2020 has been quite a year, and that's putting it lightly! But even in the midst of all that has been happening, there have been plenty of silver linings. You just have to know where to look! For example, Congress added not one, not two, but three new National Parks to the roster within the last 12 months.
One of the recent additions was White Sands National Park, a protected gypsum dune field that used to be a national monument. Our team at Anderson Design Group has always been a fan of this unique, visually stunning park, so we set to work creating National Park posters and National Park prints of White Sands.
About the Park - Seeking Inspiration for Vintage National Park Posters
Folks often ask us what our art process is, how we create National Park poster art that captures the U.S. National Parks in such nostalgic wonder.
To best capture the essence of a park, our Anderson Design Group National Parks team studies each park thoroughly. In fact, every year we take at least one trip to our nation's National Parks, to fully immerse ourselves in what these natural beauties have to offer. Studying the parks always fosters inspiration and an artistic drive, hence why our National Parks art collection has nearly 300 unique poster designs in it!
So without further ado, here are some fun facts about White Sands National Park that inspired us to create National Park art of the park:
- Located in the Tularosa Basin in New Mexico, White Sands National Park was a natural choice for National Park art prints, mainly because there is nothing quite like this park anywhere else on Earth. The park was designated in 1933 as a National Monument and then officially made a National Park in 2020. The park covers 225 square miles and welcomes visitors from all over the world.
- White Sands National Park is not "technically" made of sand! The fine white crystalline powder that collects in the park is almost pure gypsum, a water-soluble rock that degrades down to a delicate white powder. When rain falls in the region, gypsum runs down the nearby mountains and collects in the park. And because the Tularosa Basin is fully enclosed, the "sand" has nowhere to go! That's how the dunes were formed.
- The gypsum is not "technically" white either! Gypsum particles are transparent, but because they collide against each other constantly, tiny microscopic scratches form in each grain. Those scratches reflect sunlight and appear as a bright, vivid white.
- The gypsum sand at White Sands National Park does not absorb heat as other sands do! That means you can walk barefoot on the sand in total comfort, even on the hottest and sunniest summer days.
- Between 1969 and 1977, 93 African Oryx (a species of antelope) were imported from the Kalahari Desert in East Africa. They were set loose in White Sands, and today more than 3,000 roam the dunes. They are quite a sight to behold!
- Visitors to the park can bike, ride off-road vehicles, and even sled down the dunes! There are hiking trails, scenic points, and a visitor center. And given the bright white nature of the gypsum sand, the park is just as beautiful at night under a full moon, because the sands reflect the moonlight and appear surprisingly bright even in the dark of night.
National Park Art - White Sands and other Beautiful National Parks Posters for Your Home Decor!
The 62 Illustrated National Parks Collection offers National Parks prints of every National Park in the United States! Because White Sands National Park just became a Park this year, we've only just begun creating poster art of this national treasure. We offer two retro National Park posters of the park, and we hope to have created more by the end of the year!
Each vintage National Park poster is available in multiple styles and sizes too. You can order National Parks artwork as canvas banners, metal signs, postcards, notecards, premium gallery-wrapped canvases, or as a National Park print.
The beauty of our country's national lands should be preserved and protected, which is why we give a portion of our profits to the National Park Foundation each year. When you buy National Park vintage posters from Anderson Design Group, you're also supporting the care and preservation of the National Parks!
Decorating with Your Favorite U.S. National Parks Posters
We've found over the years that folks love to decorate with classic National Park posters not only because they look fantastic in any home decor or office style, but because the posters act as inspiration for the parks that they would like to visit next. We've had customers create entire "bucket list walls" of vintage National Parks posters, one for each park they'd like to travel to.
Another common theme is for customers to create "memory" walls, where they decorate a wall with souvenirs, official National Parks posters, one for every park they've visited.
Whatever your inclination to decorate with National Park retro posters, you're sure to find something nostalgic and inspiring in our collection!
See you on the trail,
-Ren Brabenec
Anderson Design Group Writing Staff
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