The Desert
Labels:
Alamogordo,
desert,
desert flower,
dunes,
El Paso,
New Mexico,
travel photo
Leaving the San Francisco east bay, I landed in El Paso, Texas and headed north. As I drove north into the New Mexico desert, I could hear strains of Eagles music drifting into my thoughts.
It's been several years since I'd been in the area and looked forward to working in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The springtime still left some greenery in the plants and made you wonder how far you could wander out there in the desert before you stepped on a rattlesnake as big as your leg.
One particular place I was excited about was visiting White Sands National Monument. Having walked the dunes back in 2004, I knew what to expect, so naturally my first Saturday gave me the opportunity.
Late in the afternoon, I took part in a "Sunset Stroll" hosted by a park ranger who pointed out some of the curiosities of the sands.
It's not the typical quartz beach sand but instead, it's gypsum and the same thing you find in drywall inside your home. When it's wet, it crystallizes and when winds reach 16 miles an hour, the flakes move along breaking into smaller flakes and collects in the Tularosa Basin. White Sands is the largest collection of this kind of sand in the world and encompasses 575 square miles of it.
Hopefully, I'll be able to get some very spectacular shots out there if I'm assigned here long enough.
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It's been several years since I'd been in the area and looked forward to working in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The springtime still left some greenery in the plants and made you wonder how far you could wander out there in the desert before you stepped on a rattlesnake as big as your leg.
One particular place I was excited about was visiting White Sands National Monument. Having walked the dunes back in 2004, I knew what to expect, so naturally my first Saturday gave me the opportunity.
Late in the afternoon, I took part in a "Sunset Stroll" hosted by a park ranger who pointed out some of the curiosities of the sands.
It's not the typical quartz beach sand but instead, it's gypsum and the same thing you find in drywall inside your home. When it's wet, it crystallizes and when winds reach 16 miles an hour, the flakes move along breaking into smaller flakes and collects in the Tularosa Basin. White Sands is the largest collection of this kind of sand in the world and encompasses 575 square miles of it.
Hopefully, I'll be able to get some very spectacular shots out there if I'm assigned here long enough.
Nice sunsets too.
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