White Silver Sands

This shot was taken at White Sands National Monument near Alamagordo, New Mexico. The sand is gypsum and is so bright on a sunny day it will nearly blind you. It’s hard to believe that anything could grow here with miniscule rainfall and temps that go well past the 110 degrees F. that it was the day we were there. However, as you can see, things do grow. The majority of the plants in the photo are Yucca Soap Plants and, evidently, have a very deep root system. The dunes are constantly on the move, so the plants must also grow to stay above ground.

Fred Paget, photographer