Nicole Mejiaのインスタグラム(nicole_mejia) - 2月15日 09時21分

We had planned to drive straight through New Mexico, not because there’s nothing to see there, but because we wanted to spend more days in Utah and Colorado.

During the last day in Texas, I was scrolling through a travel page I follow (@wonderlustcollective) and clicked on an image of a man walking through a white desert. I was like “OMG, look how beautiful!” Then I looked at the location and saw it was in New Mexico!!!!
We decided we had to go check it out. It seemed guided! I mean, how often do you click on a stunning scenic photo like that and it be in the state you’re venturing into the next day!? Driving through NM felt charged. I f*ck with the energy there.✨ We stayed the night in a town called Ruidoso, took the morning to eat and walk into a few shops, got some warming cranberry, chili, and cayenne tea🌶🍒, and then drove Southwest to the White Sands National Park.

This place was MAGIC—a white, fine-grained, glistening desert in the middle of New Mexico’s rocky lands.

After a quick impromptu photo shoot, we climbed up to find solitude amongst the dunes.

Silence. 🌬

I walked for about an hour, deeper into the dune field, climbing the highest ones I could find.

It felt good to walk.
I felt free.

After, we sat atop a dune and watched the sun set, setting the sky over the mountains ablaze and the sky opposite a candy cotton pink, dotted by an almost-full moon. 🌄🌝 Again, it was magic.

If you’re interested in how the desert was formed, this was taken from the National Park Service site: “The dunefield is nested in the Tularosa Basin, which is surrounded by the San Andres and the Sacramento Mountains. These mountains are composed of layers of gypsum. Rainfall and snowmelt from these mountains dissolve the gypsum and wash it down to basin’s floor. Here it has nowhere to go, much like a bathtub or sink with no drain. The water settles on the basin floor at its lowest point, called Lake Lucero. When weather conditions are optimal, the water evaporates. When this happens the dissolved minerals recrystallize and form selenite crystals. Selenite is the crystalline form of gypsum.” If you’re going to the Southwest, it’s a must-see!

Photo by @khal_dago

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