Skip to main content

White Sands National Monument, NM

Two days of driving and fucking around we finally made it to White Sands National Monument.

I was so happy that I renewed our Annual National Park Pass so we could get in for free.

Once again...Sadly mistaken

Easter Weekend.  National Parks are free!  So, besides us, there were a crap ton of people at the park. Most of the people were congregated in parking lots that were surrounded by sand dunes that you could sled down.

White Sands has unique type of sand that is 98% gypsum crystals. This formation is kind of like snow which allows you to walk on it without slowing you down.  Less drag.

A blown up view of gypsum crystals

We drove around a bit then decided to do some hiking to scope out a good sunset spot.  

You wouldn't think that sand would be too photo worthy but we took a lot of photos (about 700 between us).









Long day but a great day!

We got back to the hotel later that night and pretty much fell asleep right away.

Got up really early (0430) and pretty much drove non stop all the way home.

Worth the drive...yep.  Would I do it again...yep









Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Jordan Day 1

 It's been almost three years since we had payed for our trip to Jordan and Israel.  THREE FUCKING YEARS! We finally went and had a great time.   The trip lasted almost a month and we started our adventure in Amman, Jordan.  We arrived a day early so we could acclimate to the time change (nine hour difference).   We had purchased some Briggs and Riley high end luggage in hopes to carry them on the plane due to all of the recent horror stories of lost and or delayed baggage.  No such luck!  We were forced to check our bags at the gate in Denver.  If we had known our bags would have to be checked, we would have brought a lot more clothes and a much bigger suitcase.  We only brought six days of clothes (with an extra abundance of underwear and socks).   The planes were on time and we arrived in Amman a bit tired and eager to get going.   Our first hotel was the House Boutique Hotel which was really comfortable.  The hotel had a ro...

Barr Lake, Colorado (AKA New Lens Test)

What's one to do when you buy a new lens (discounted $300 by the way)?  Thats right, go shoot some birds at one of the many Colorado State Parks. Lucky for us, Barr Lake is just a few minute drive for us. We got up at 5am thinking that we would roll out of bed and hit the road.  Well, that didn't happen.  We got on the road at 6am and arrived a few minutes later. Our new lenses added an additional 3lbs to our backpacks and along with the tripod and water bottles it was a wonder we could walk at all. Our goal was to go out to the Gazebo.  Michelle thought it was a short walk (with a 15lb backpack in tow) but it was about 1 1/2 miles.  Normally, this would be about 30 minute walk but a ton of birds everywhere it took us about an hour or so to reach our destination. How big are our lenses?

Back From Morocco

I guess I forgot to tell you where we went for our three week vacation…. Morocco! Great trip! Met some new friends and basically toured the Moroccan countryside by bus, horse and buggy, 4x4’s and camel. We stayed at eleven different hotels and spent two nights in the Sahara desert (the Milky Way was awesome). Anyway, here is a link to the pictures that we took. Yes, Michelle and I have separate smug mug accounts for picture posting: Erich’s SmugMug site: https://erichphoto.smugmug.com/International-Travel/Morocco/   Michelle’s SmugMug site: https://michellephoto.smugmug.com/Morocco/ you can see a video slide show as well (the pictures are the same) on my youtube site: https://youtu.be/_fXuiJeJ1cU enjoy