White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

Arrived at White Sands late in the afternoon just in time to scope out the park and make a quick hike into the sand dunes to take a sunset image. As the park is not open for general camping accommodation had to obtained in the nearby town of Alamogodo 13 miles away.

On the way to White Sands I had to pass through a border post which is operated by the Border Patrol. The Border Patrol are responsible for stopping illegal aliens from entering the US. The officer asked if I was an American to which I replied that I was Australian. He then requested to see my passport. My passport was located in my spare bag located in the thule on top of the vehicle. I had to unpack the thule, find my passport and show the officer. I guess he thought I was an illegal alien!

The following morning was an early start to capture the sunrise at White Sands. Arriving at the park at 0630 I was shocked to discover the park was not open to 0700 which was just after sunrise! Therefore, I missed the light pinks and blues of sunrise as the sun struck the white sand and hills beyond. Not to miss out, we quickly drove to the point that we had decided on the night before, grabbed our gear and quickly negotiated a few dunes to get away from the car park. Despite missing sunrise, the morning was not wasted as there was moderate cloud cover which provided some diffused light.

The afternoon was relatively overcast and it was feared that the time would be wasted, Despitr this, we persisted and hiked out to another location free of tracks. Setting up our tripods we hung about waiting for the sun to hopefully sneak out from behind the cloud cover. Just before sunset, our efforts were rewarded and light struck several dune slopes. A nearby storm also provided some dramatic clouds which added to the low light.

It was 6:30 PM as we made our way back to the car when we heard a quick yelp (siren) from a ranger vehicle (on the access road). This was followed by a loud haler informing us that the park closed at 7.00PM. The speaker then announced that the current time was 6:32 PM. I guess the ranger saw the unattended car and was concerned we would be trapped inside the park after the gate was closed and locked.

White Sands is part of the US missile range and F18's flew continually overhead on there way to the bombing site. Considering the beauty of the area it was disappointing to find a huge airforce base (Holloway AFB) and missile range near the park; any aircraft flew directly over the park to reach the range. On several occasions you could hear the supersonic jets break the sound barrier with a BOOM. Later in the day another BOOM was heard and the shock wave from the detonation of bombs rocked the car (which was miles away from the actual missile range).

Four types of sand dunes can be observed at White Sands depending upon the volume of sand available; parabolic, parallel, transverse and barchan. The sand is indeed very white and very fine grained. The dunes are not actually comprised of sand (quartz) but are formed from gypsum.

Although the area is very harsh there is a wealth of flora and flora in the park ranging from lizards and insects to mammals including the mouse and fox. The Yucca tree is very common in the park and many can be seen growing upon the lee face of sand dunes. The Cottonwood tree is also relatively common and is very interesting in that it grows within the sand dune itself. On the dune you can see the trees upper branches while the remainder of the trunk is below the actual sand's surface. The tree survives like this because Cottonwoods have a deepish tap root which secures a water supply from the water table located at a depth of 4 feet below the playa surface.

The image at left is a rocket used at White Sands by the US military.

The last night at White Sands we dined in a restaurant and discussed some future trip itineraries. Everything was jotted down in small notepad which also had several pages of notes. After departing the restaurant and driving an hour up the highway Rebecca received a call from Lee (Rebecca's husband) to inform her that she had left the book on the table in the restaurant. Therefore, a one hour drive north ended up taking 3 hours as we had to return to the restaurant to pick up the book and then continue our journey again.

NANPA, New Mexico

The last 5 days have been spent at the NANPA photographic conference. The conference has been a lot of fun and I've meet many interesting and helpful people, not too mention learning heaps in the way of marketing.

Free time to update the blog has been very limited and unfortunately I am behind in posting images and listing areas visited immediately before NANPA. Hopefully, this will be rectified shortly if Internet is available.

Tomorrow I leave Albuquerque and make my way west to Bosque D' Apache for some bird work before driving to White Sands for landscape work. I'm not sure how long I'll spend in White Sands. After this I'll zap north east through New Mexico bound for Yellowstone National Park stopping at few iconic locations along the way.

Saguaro National Park, Arizona

Saguaro National Park in Arizona is renown for it's iconic cactus called the Saguaro cactus. This cactus predominately only grows in Arizona and Mexico. The cactus can reach 20 feet in height and arms only develop on the cactus after 75 years. As such, many of the cactus plants observed in the park are very old and were about as teenagers when cowboys and Indians roamed the territory.

Finding ideal photographic locations is difficult if you are keen to photograph landscapes with a foreground, middle-ground, and background. This is due to the density of cactus. After searching for a few hours, we settled on producing a pano photograph (compilation of several images stitched together) utilizing the low light of the afternoon sun. The redrock country (scarps, mesas & jump ups) reflects a rich orange light as golden hour approaches (hour before sunset) providing excellent opportunities for photographs.

Of course the Saguaro cactus are not the only flora species in the region; Cholla cactus and other Mammarian Genus cactus can also be easily found in addition to several spring wildlflower species To see these you must be willing to step from the road and make a short hike into the desert. During your short hike your also bound to notice the unusual rock types that you are walking on; many are volcanic in origin. You will also notice something that appears to look like a rock, but is not a rock. This is cyptobiotic soil. The soil (actually a crust) is rich in bacteria and is actually a living organism providing nutrients to the desert soil. These crusts are very important in the development of arid ecosystems so be very careful not to step on the soil as it takes many years to develop, and can be destroyed by walking on it - be careful where you place your feet!

See http://www.nps.gov/archive/care/crypto.htm for further information.

Quartzite, Arizona

Quartzite is a non descript town located well within the arid vastness of Arizona; there is nothing particularly special about the town, however, the environs surrounding Quartzite are well worth a visit. Leaving the highway we traversed an old four wheel drive trail that lead to a washout (perennial stream bed). Rock shelters could be seen amongst the red rock sandstone and basaltic rock which flanked one side of the washout; although I did not climb to the shelters it is not hard to image prehistoric man, and then Americans Indians occupying the sites.

Several species of cacti can be observed in the area with the main species being the tall saguaro cactus made infamous in Hollywood western movies. I found particularly interesting the crptobiotic soil which was common in the area and the wide assortment of volcanic and sedimentary rocks which continually attracted my attention. Amongst several rocky areas were small alpine plants with purple and yellow flowers.

The architecture of 70% of buildings in the desert area is interesting. The buildings are covered in an earth coloured material a few inches in thickness - similar to covering bricks in mud. The reason for this covering is soon apparent when you enter a building for it's several degrees cooler inside than outside.

Painted Rock Petroglyph Site, Arizona

This site protects a variety of cultural and natural resources including volcanoes, archeological sites and an estimated 20,000 carved images. Many of the images are recognizable as animals, people, brands and crosses; others are more complex. These images are inseparable from the cultural landscape, the spirits of the people who created, and whom appreciate them, but whose culture has since vanished.

I anticipated it would be a short visit, however, I spend most of 4 hours at the site. The petroglyphs are located on volcanic rocks deposited by ancient volcanic flows which rise above the desert floor. There are many petroglyph sites in New Mexico and nearly all volcanic flows have glyphs etched out of the rock.

There are two styles of glyphs; etched using a rock as a etching tool, or scraped using a rock. Motifs vary depending upon the ancient tribe that produced the artwork, however, most relate to the cosmos and local animals. Circles, squares, lizards, nets, faces, and bighorn sheep are all represented at this site.

If visiting the site, it must be remembered that this site is protected and collecting any material from the area is strictly enforced by a resident ranger on-site.