This is our second day at White Sands National Monument and what a great two days we’ve had. We actually arrived late in the afternoon on the 28 November, but very strong winds prevented any photography, That being said, the wind had cleared all of the foot prints left by earlier visitors, so we had virgin sand to work with.
White Sands is a U.S. National Monument located about 15 miles Southwest of Alamogordo in the state of New Mexico. The area is in the mountain-ringed Tularosa valley area and comprises the southern part of a 275 sq mile field of white sand dunes composed of gypsum crystals.
As with Bosque del Apache, this was my second visit to White Sands and was one I had been looking forward to for some time. On this occasion I spent a lot more time within the interdune flats than on my previous visit, but I didn’t neglect the dunes altogether.
Photographing the white sand dunes and plants is best done an hour or so either side sunrise and sunset as the lighting casts long shadows and adds colour where virtually none exists. The following are a small sample of images taken over this past two days.