This will be my last post in this series about White Sands National Park.

After passing the entry gate, and about 4.5 miles down the road, there’s the Interdune Boardwalk (my feature photo). The total distance to the end platform and back is approximately one half mile, and there are several information placards posted along the way. The 360° view at the end platform just takes your breath away. I did a panoramic shot, but when I Googled the instructions on how to embed it here, it looked to be a bit complicated to insert and then again for readers to watch, so I decided to skip it. You’ll just have to take my word for it.

After walking the boardwalk and reading all about plants and creatures that have adapted to dune life, and about how to recognize the various animal footprints, I decided that I wanted to find a dune with no footprints on it, and climb it, so that for a little time at least, mine would be the only creature footprints on it. We finally found that dune … at least we thought we did … until we returned home and I saw some other prints across the bottom of “my” dune. They help to tell the story of these photos, so I decided not to crop them out.

By the time we found this dune (I was very fussy in my dune hunt), the sun was high in the sky, and poor hubs, who doesn’t like taking photos in the best of conditions, couldn’t see a thing on the phone screen. He kept calling out to me, “But I can’t even see you on this thing! How do I know if I’m getting the pictures you want?” I reassured him that he’d do fine, and he did!

See those footprints across the bottom?
(Those belong to some other creature than me)
My footprints are going both ways because I went to the top, then back down to reassure hubs, then back to the top again – a very good workout!

That’s me way up there, doing my best “Rocky” pose

Photo Note: For all three photos in today’s post, all I did was resize, and then barely adjust the white balance and exposure in post processing. The deep blue sky and the brilliant white gypsum sand did all the rest.

“In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth.”

Rachel Carson