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Total Silence.
After putting on my camera pack then hiking for five minutes
I was greeted by total silence.
If you
have been following my blog over the past few years you know I have been
day-hiking monthly through northern New Mexico.
In all my hikes I have never experienced quiet like this. Because it’s a holiday Holloman Air Force
Base is quiet, there’s no birds, there’s no breeze, no wildlife that I can see,
and because I was the second car of three in line to get into the park there’s no
traffic or people. Each people-packed
vehicle seems to know where they want to go and go there. With the monument made up of 275 square miles
of gypsum it is easy to get away from others if you want.
I had been here 20+ years ago; all I remember is that I felt
I was in the middle of freshly fallen snow and how glad I was that I was not
responsible for shoveling it. It is
somewhat ironic that I mention this because this past weekend the eastern half
of New Mexico experienced blizzard conditions delivering one to two feet of
snow. I had to divert my trip from San
Antonio, Texas through El Paso because the roads in eastern New Mexico were
closed.
I got here shortly before 7 AM planning on catching a
colorful sunrise. The clouds covered the
sky with breaks here and there but the breaks were off to the west. On to plan B.
There are many subjects to shoot; rolling sand dunes, lonesome yuccas,
wind-blown sand patterns, grasses, and arcs etched into the sand by wind driven
low lying grasses. It’s just a change of
scale between subjects. Having a cloud
filled sky is actually a blessing because the contrast range is reduced. No sunglasses are needed today so the camera
can handle the range of light to dark with no problem. |
| Picnic area |
There are only a few formal trails within the monument, so
stop at your favorite parking area; pick a direction and wander. BE SURE TO HAVE A GPS WITH YOU or really know
how to use a map and compass. Once you
go over the first dune; followed by a second they all look the same. I made sure to watch the mountains forming
the east and west boundaries of the valley.
Even so that is only good for knowing east from west but not much more since
the mountains are 20 – 30 miles away. My
first hiking area consists of Barchan dunes, crescent shaped dunes constantly
moving but there is not as much sand in this area consequently more plant life. Roots appear sporadically around these
plants, sometimes tens of feet from the mother plant it is collecting water
for.
The tops of dunes are windblown. All kinds of shapes appear as the softer sand
is chiseled away by the sometimes harsh winds.
Some spots have multiple layers of sand with one layer having ripples coming
from one direction and the layer below coming from a different direction. They remind me of waves coming up the beach
from different directions.
Returning from my early morning expedition I start hearing
signs of life; first is the beep, beep, beep of front end loaders endlessly
patrolling the roads for intrusions of sand.
Next I hear kids of all ages; from four to 64, screaming and yelling as
they take their recently purchased snow discs for rides down the 20 foot sand
dunes, then run back to the top to do it again.
The only thing missing from this scene of white is the traditional
snowball fight. The picnic areas aren’t
used today, the kids are having too much fun sledding to stop and eat.
Leaving the first area of exploration I continue down the
loop road to the Alkali Flats trailhead.
Here are Transverse dunes, ample sand and wind form long ridged
dunes. There is some plant life at the
bottom of the dunes but anything above the ‘floor’ of the dunes is bare. In my brief look at the trailhead I see this
is a loop trail but no mention of length.
I start out going up and down each ridge of dunes always watching for
the posts setting the trail. The start
of the trail consists hundreds of footprints but as I continue there are fewer
and fewer with no more than a few dozen by the time I get to the trail midway
point. Along the way I see a few trees
hanging on; their roots buried in big mounds of sand at the bottom of the
taller sand dunes that surround them. I
am not sure if the trees or the sand is winning, the trees are bare; but this
is winter so I am not certain if the trees are dead or have shed their leaves anticipating
spring. The way the winds move the dunes
around I’m sure I could come back next year and see a totally different scene.
The wind etches different patterns in the low flat areas
between the dunes than on the dune tops. Here the dunes line ‘plowed fields’ of
sand with ‘snow’ filling the furrows between the ridges.
The trail is five miles; I’m beat by the time I get
back. Most of the sand is firmly packed
so you walk on top of the sand with minimal sinking. You do have to pay attention though; there are
areas where loose sand has drifted on top and if you are not careful you will
end up with your own sandbox in your shoes.
After stopping for lunch and a quart of Gatorade I visit the
gift shop and visitor center. The
visitor center has information, a slide show of the area and helpful park
rangers. The gift shop has the usual
kid’s toys, jewelry, T-shirts and discs for sliding down the dunes. I hear several foreign languages spoken by
visitors as I watch the slide show and wander back into the gift shop.
After a couple hours of resting, lunching and visiting I head
back into the park to catch sunset. I
pack up my camera equipment and GPS heading off in yet another direction
looking for the iconic White Sands image; something with dunes, yucca, colorful
clouds and shadows. I don’t want my dune
spoiled by footprints so walking only a few hundred feet off the road is out of
the question. Hiking in a half mile
seems to eliminate almost all footprints so now I can concentrate on the list
of things I want in my image. Cresting
each dune gives me another set of potential images to assess and either stop or
hope for something better over the next dune.
This afternoon the clouds play nice; they group together leaving a few clear
spots. I have to keep watching for the moving sunlight and shadow. Once the sun disappears behind the mountains
the temperature drops several degrees.
The park closes about an hour after sunset so I keep an eye on my watch making
sure I am on my way out before the gate closes.
The next day, New Year’s Day, I do it all over again. Again I am in the second car waiting for the gate
to open. This time there are five cars. Once arriving at the loop road everyone takes
off in different directions. Today the
clouds are featureless from horizon to horizon.
It is colder with a stiff breeze making me glad I put on an extra layer
of clothing.
I trek off from another location; yuccas are all around but
other types of plant life make random appearances. I keep shooting for several hours until I
come to my self imposed time to leave. On the way out I see two siblings competing. One place I see them poking each other, another I see where their jabs are long forgotten.
 |
| Siblings |
White Sands National Monument is a place to make the effort
to stop and see. It is amazing what the
mix of sand, water and wind can do!
Thank you for stopping by,
Mark
beautiful! I see why you took the time to stop here. The sand patterns and formations remind me of a Zen garden.
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