Hey, does anyone feel like a quick trip out to White Sands National Park to look at dead stuff?

I am not actually heading that way myself, but I guess I was just gauging interest. Or something.

Anyway, here’s a photo that I made when I DID go there at the end of last year. And, yes, I was lying flat on my stomach in the sand.

Pushing aside the personal concerns I had about actually being able to get up from that position, I had the idea that the sand felt wet. Not damp, like the packed sand at a beach. But there was a coolness to it that gave me the impression of water lurking somewhere below me. I later learned that the water table at White Sands is only one to three feet below the surface of the sand, which reinforced my initial (weird) thoughts about it.

Also, here’s a Fun Fact: the sand, which is actually tiny eroded particles of gypsum, never gets hot in the sun because gypsum does not absorb heat the way silica or quartz sand does.

White Sands National Park, New Mexico
photographed 12.13.2025