White Solitude

There. Deep in the hear of nowhere it sat. Just so, at an angle designed to carefully shield the sun. It rested jauntily upon the top of a dune, a splash of color in the other otherwise desolate landscape. Actually, it was the only splash of color there, apart from the white and the blue of the distant mountains.

White Sands National Monument in southern New Mexico is a place like no other. Trackless, endless dunes of white gypsum sand stretch as far as the eye can see, and beyond. The solitude and the silence deep in the dune field is like no other, and the only sounds heard are those that you yourself make… and even then you are just swallowed up by the vastness. It seems that no matter how far you walk, how many dunes you climb, or how many times your feet step forward there is one more dune ahead of you. Perhaps that’s true, but there is, of course, the mountains in the distance to provide contrast.

Being out among the dunes gives you, however, a deep sense of peace and tranquility. Intellectually, you know the dunes do not stretch forever, yet in your heart and soul you know that they must.

For those who crave solitude, this is the place to be. Just don’t forget your umbrella.

Yucca Dune

The emptiness, when seen from just the right angle, is absolute and complete. The white gypsum sands stretch on for an infinity, never beginning, never ending, always continuing, always stretching, endless emptiness.

And in the middle of this, life always finds a way. Growing in the middle of nowhere and everywhere, the Yucca, alone on its dune, perseveres. It is undaunted by the endless emptiness and continues its race against the sands. Make no mistake about it, either, for it is a race against life. If this Soapstone Yucca cannot grow quick enough or tall enough, the shifting sands of the dune will eventually cover it, overwhelming it and consuming it.

In the White Sands National Monument, this race happens throughout the dune field, with many victors and many losers. Some dunes have a lot of participants on them–others, like this dune, sport just one isolated yucca, which is leading the way, perhaps, for others yet to follow. For now, though, the race for survival continues on this Yucca Dune; the sands continue to stretch on to infinity, the silence complete and the outcome far from certain.