From the distance, it just appeared as a mass of white in a scorched desert environment. Plants seem to have shied away from this natural bowl between two mountain ranges where this mass lay. And as I got closer, the discernible shape of dunes emerged out of this mass of white.

White Sands was a surreal place, where the pure white gypsum sand place tricks with your mind: it looked like snow, behaved like sand, and flowed like salt, and yet, it had all the characteristics of a regular sand dune. And when the winds picked up and whipped into a frenzy, the dust storm of white sand was like nothing else.

I am excited to be returning back to this amazing place. And while it was a National Monument then, it has since been upgraded to a National Park status. Hopefully that brings more attention to this unique corner of New Mexico

White Sands National Park
NM USA