I’d been here before, White Sands National Park in New Mexico, in the middle of the day. The bright light erased the contours of most everything and the dunes were awash in people sledding and scrambling up and down sandy piles of gypsum. I could envision the photo I wanted but clearly that was not going to be the day.
Three months later another opportunity presented itself and I snatched it. We planned to get up early- White Sands opens at 7 am- and get the equivalent of a skiers’ first tracks. The dunes are constantly shifting and blowing moving as much as thirty-eight feet in a year so each morning the canvas has been wiped clean, the dunes have cut new, crisp edges and the only fresh prints are those left by the critters who call this place home.
