White Sands National Monument, NM

[cnycharles]

Last year on New Year's day i'd planned on visiting the White Sands National Monument, in south central new mexico. It is a few miles northeast of the white sands missile testing range, which is east of las cruces, new mexico. The mountains between las cruces and white sands are very dramatic, rising steeply and very sharply behind the city and in front of the rio grande river floodplain. Over a very long time, minerals leached out of the mountains to the left, and waters and wind tumbled them into dunes in a very low region to the east of the mountains. There is much more detail to the formation and maintenance of these dunes, but ground water very close to the surface affects the deposition of minerals, the formation of crystals on the sand surface in places, and the presence of plants in this desert environment

Previous year I tried to visit on my last day, and the one day in forever when the park actually closed. A young visitor the day before had found himself lost, so the roads were all in use by the horse and dune transport teams.
It was a very gloomy day, and sometimes a bit windy. I used both my phone and my eos 5d

I get two blocks away from my mother's apartment, and there's a tumbleweed roadblock!

 

[cnycharles]

deposition zones are where crystals are forming

if you look closely, you'll see dark sand on left, bright sand on right. it had snowed a few days ago
and where the melted snow trickled it was darker

every few days the road and parking lot need to be power cleaned to continue access

 

[cnycharles]

 

[cnycharles]

 

[cnycharles]

 

[cnycharles]

 

[SlipperFan]

It is amazing how anything can live and grow in that!

 

[abax]

Very interesting terrain, but I see lots of footprints so many
animals must live there. I can't imagine on what though.
While looking through the photos, I was trying to imagine
how humans could travel there with horses...no food and
very little water. It's beautiful, but just a little forbidding.

 

[li'l frog]

It is an amazing place. My Mother-in-law lived in Tularosa, next to the sands. We were out there one time, and at sunset on a windy day saw something that looked like a pink and orange rainbow, formed from the wind-borne particles and the setting sun.

 

[cnycharles]

It is an amazing place. My Mother-in-law lived in Tularosa, next to the sands. We were out there one time, and at sunset on a windy day saw something that looked like a pink and orange rainbow, formed from the wind-borne particles and the setting sun.

Cool! New mexico colors can be awesome. I know I overdosed on pictures, like the petroglyphs threads, but you see so many interesting things
At first I thought there were lots of different animal tracks, then I saw dogs out walking with people. There was one picture I posted that I'm sure was a fox or something and not a dog

 

[NYEric]

Thanks for sharing. I was wondering if its habitable. What are the pink chrystals?

 

[cnycharles]

I'd forgotten, had to look it up. Both the white sands and the pink crystals are made of gypsum, rather than the usual quartz sands

 

[li'l frog]

It could have been the late sunlight reflecting off the gypsum in the air. It was a long time ago, didn't have a decent camera. The White Sands change constantly, different every week, every year.