Hiking - Part 53

 White Sands National Park

White Sands National Park is like nowhere else on Earth, an expanse of white gypsum sand in the New Mexico desert, surrounded by military installations (the White Sands Missile Range and Holloman Air Force Base).  The trails there are also not like the trails in other parks.  Above is the Alkali Flat Trail.  You can only tell where the trail goes by following the red trail markers.

But some brave souls wander off the trails ...

into the featureless sands.

Above, dark clouds threaten ...

but the usual weather is sunny.

Making a "sand angel".  Don't get sunburned!

This curious picnic table structure provides shade from the sun.

Much of White Sands looks lifeless, but amazingly, live survives here ...

and there is beauty.  This is a sand verbena.