Early Morning at White Sands

One morning on our most recent camping trip, we visited White Sands early in the morning.  There’s something about the light in the early morning that makes everything softer, yet crisper, if that makes any sense….

Path Thru the Dunes

The first place we walked was in an area called “Dune Life” or something like that.  It’s the place where you see the most natural plant growth in White Sands.  This was a sort of path that took us deeper into the part of the Dunes where we’d see plant life…..

White Sands Fall Color

And, since we were there during the fall, it only makes sense that we’d see some fall color, right?  Somehow, I hadn’t really expected to see actual fall color, but this shrub surprised me!.....

Drifting Dunes

After we left the “Dune Life” path, we drove along the road that took us further into the Dunes.  The plant life became sparser, and the dunes more prominent.  This was the 3^rd or 4^th visit to White Sands, and, altho at first one thinks nothing can really change, because it’s “only” sand dunes, in fact, the wind that carries over the dunes is re-sculpting the dunes all the time…..

Sign of Man

At first glance, all one tends to see are the curves and lines formed by the shifting sands, but when you look a bit closer, you can see the footsteps of another explorer to this ever-changing, but unchanging place….

Sun on the Dunes

In this image, you can see the textures created by the wind across the dunes, and if you look really closely, you can see a small tiny dot just off to the left of where the sun’s rays reach the furthest toward the dunes – it’s another intrepid explorer – who knows how far away…..

Mountain Peeking

And, throughout this posting, you’ve seen some mountains off in the distance.  In this image, you can see just the tops of the San Andres Mountains peeking over the dunes.  But, between those mountains and White Sands National Monument is White Sands Missile Range.  And, check out the texture of the sand that you can see in the foreground of these images….

Amazing Textures

Speaking of texture on the sand, check out this collection of images showing textures that we saw on this morning visit!  Many are driven by the wind across the dunes, but the additional textures you can see in the middle and right images were caused by some small creature traveling across the sand.  Again, another surprise, in a way.  You just don’t think of much living in this environment.  Oh, and by the way, one closing tidbit of information.  I’ve been referring to the sand dunes – but, truly, they aren’t sand, the white “sand” is actually gypsum!  Somehow gypsum dunes doesn’t quite have the ring that sand dunes does!

Enjoy!