gold is immortality
I met a gentleman from Louisiana in the hotel in Alamogordo.
Wait a minute. That doesn’t sound right.
What I mean is that I crossed paths with a gentleman from Louisiana and we had a chat in the hotel lobby. He’d come all the way from Monroe to see the dunes (and what he called the “yucca trees”) and was interested in what our group was finding. He said he hoped I got a photo of the sunset.
I did. And this is it.
(Probably to your great relief, this is the end of White Sands. Thanks for sticking with me!)
White Sands National Park, New Mexico
photographed 12.13.2025
my way to be free
The first photo I posted in this series from White Sands was of a picnic shelter, with long early-morning shadows, sun-tipped white dunes, and skinny clouds.
Or rare occasions, symmetry appeals to me, so I’ll close out this run of monochrome White Sands images with another shot of that same picnic shelter – this time, a close look at the shelter’s structure. The rivets caught my attention for reasons that I hope are clear. Or if not clear, then maybe clear-ish.
White Sands National Park, New Mexico
photographed 12.13.2025
reaching for the sky just to surrender
For reasons that I don’t understand, Leonard Cohen’s music became my personal soundtrack while I was on the dunes. I don’t mean that I was listening to the music through my phone. I mean that bits of his lyrics would appear in my brain from time to time, unbidden yet still welcome.
In this case, I heard the line “reaching for the sky just to surrender.” This yucca will lose its battle with the movement of the sand, as have the ones that were there before and the ones that will come after. All of them reach for the sky for a time before their inevitable acquiesce. It’s the way of things.
White Sands National Park, New Mexico
photographed 12.13.2025
the center of everywhere
On the drive into the dunes, I was thinking about how much I like to see how wind-whipped grasses carve shallow concentric circles into the sand. And this one came with a scattering of bird tracks for a nice bonus.
White Sands National Park, New Mexico
photographed 12.14.2025
in the stones of your mind
Mind games.
Even while I was standing right there making this image, my brain kept trying to believe that this was drifted snow. It was, in fact, quite insistent.
But it was then and still is drifts of gypsum. But you can see the confusion, maybe?
White Sands National Park, New Mexico
photographed 12.14.2025
One Day | One Image 