White Sands
White sand dunes rise above the Chihuahuan desert.
In April I had to make a fast trip to Las Cruces, NM to pick up the interior of my show booth that I had just purchased. I was able to time the journey so that I would have a couple hours at White Sands National Monument on my way there. I arrived right at the opening of the gates to the park and got a full two hours there before having to move on to my pickup appointment.
The San Andres mountains stand guard over White Sands.
It is interesting how the dunes just suddenly rise up out of the surrounding desert.
This is a part of New Mexico that I had never visited before. One thing I have learned since I started photography is that I become fascinated with the land and scenes that I capture. White Sands needs a lot more than a couple of hours to really capture the beauty. For me, the colors and patterns are pretty special and I could spend hours and hours roaming around there. At some point, I will be back to catch sunrise and sunset scenes.
This is where the nature trail heads off into the dunes.
The moment you crest the first dune, you are in another world.
White Sands lays in the Tularosa Basin which has no outlet drainage. All of the rain that falls in the area picks up minerals and drains to the lowest point which is the southwest side of White Sands. As the water then evaporates it leaves the minerals which is very rich in selenite or gypsum. As the evaporation occurs, the minerals form selenite crystals. Then the hot, dry, howling winds erode the crystals into smaller and smaller pieces until they form the white sand.
Creosote bush in bloom.
A close up shows how fine and smooth the grains of sand are. Any spot someone has stepped leaves a small depression in the sand and the wind puts debris in each.
The surface is an unending sea of sand.
A cottonwood leaf in the sand, and you can see the trails made by the larger pieces being blown across the surface.
Sand made from gypsum has some very different properties from regular silica type sands. The individual grains of gypsum sand are very smooth and the feel of the sand is completely different. Gypsum also holds water, so down below the surface there is moisture that not only feeds plants but glues the gypsum together and stabilizes the dunes. When you get to a low spot you can see the rings left from water. A fascinating area.
Light and shadows.
Tracks from a small animal checking out what the wind blew in for breakfast.
My footprint, fresh in the sand. Before long it will just be another depression in the sand.
