Sunset at White Sands

Hi Blog.  Today we made our third and final (for this trip) visit to White Sands National Monument. After touring the Visitor Center, sledding down the dunes and walking almost all of the trails, we had one last mission to accomplish.  We wanted to join a Ranger led sunset hike.  For most of the day, we had brilliant blue cloudless skies.  As afternoon wore on, the clouds began to build.  There was one particularly dark ominous cloud coming in the from the West.  We were not sure we would be able to see any sunset at all.  Nevertheless, we drove out to the park.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Because of the changing weather, we were only joined by one other traveler:  a young woman, who was accompanied by her dog, Bo.  The young woman grew up in Colorado and just happens to live now in New Hope, Pennsylvania.  Small world!

Ranger Bob brought out his lightening meter and checked the area for static charges.  Since the meter gave the "all clear," we proceeded to venture forth.  However, we would only ever be a few yards from our vehicles should a downpour occur.

With the dark clouds in the background, the sand really showed its stripes:

However, when you turned the other directions, it was still blue-sky beautiful.

After climbing up a tall dune, Ranger Bob opened up his bag of goodies.  He had lots of photos to show us and talked about the various plants and animals that live in the white sands.  The coolest show-and-tell items were the selenite crystals.  These clear, slightly brownish, crystals form as the water in nearby Lake Lucero dries.  The crystals can grow up to three feet long.  Freezing and thawing and wetting and drying eventually break down the crystals into sand-sized particles light enough to be moved by the wind.

Don't look now - the dark cloud edges closer and closer:

Back to our ranger program.  Here's the Soaptree Yucca.  It survives in the dunes by elongating its stem to keep its leaves above the sand, growing upward a foot per year.  Native Americans used this yucca for all sorts of things - soap, needles, food, baskets and seeds.

Just when we thought we would have to cut our Ranger Program short, the dark cloud passed us by. The sun soon poked out from underneath, backlighting the San Andres Mountains.

As the storm cloud departed, the higher clouds glowed a bright orange.

As we turned to face the Sacramento Mountains just beyond Alomagordo, we could see them turn pink:

The dark cloud hovered over Alamogordo and dropped some rain.  For a brief moment, we could just make our a rainbow (on the right side of the photo below):

While this was not the most colorful sunset we have ever photographed, having a huge rainstorm zip by gave it lots of complexity.

Next time we come, we want to spend some nights camping out in the dunes.  We still need some sunrise photos to add to our collection.