White Sands

For years, I’ve wanted to go to White Sands National Monument. This year we lucked out: we got to visit on New Year’s, when the moon was just about full. We camped out with the dogs, which required about a mile backpack out to the campsite, which looked like this:

Really cool landscape, but it was cold as hell. Maybe mid 20s or so.

I’ll admit that my pics were pretty influenced by some iconic images I had seen:

But nothing beat the little surprises, like finding little bird tracks,

or watching the moon rise on one side,

and the sun set on the other,

especially when some clouds rolled in.

But nothing beat sunrise. Though it was hard to get out of the warm sleeping bag and into into the cold morning air, it was worth it.