Sand Storm at White Sands

Last week we spent couple evenings at the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. The first evening started relatively come, with mild wind blowing from the south west. We went on a big loop hike, but as sun was getting closer to the ground wind started to pick up and visibility started to deteriorate and we were having hard time seeing the markers, so we turned around and went back to the base area to wait for the sunset. 

Closer to the sunset the wind was probably around 30-40 mph and you could hardly see around, as it was blowing all that sand right in your face and we were pretty much in the big white cloud of dust. I had my big camera in the backpack, the smaller hanging over my neck and my phone camera in my pocket. I was hoping to take some shots with big camera on the tripod and even pulled it out at one moment but quickly stored it back, the sand blowing was just too intense for it and I didn’t want to risk it. So that evening I took a few photos with a smaller camera that was already out in the open and with my phone, which thankfully has only couple small openings and can’t collect dust on the sensor or the lens.

It was the night before the “Blood Moon” and it was pretty much full, it showed up on the horizon at the same time as sun was setting on the opposite side. I took this shot with my phone. Check out the video as well.

As we were waiting for the sunset it was good time to immortalize one the nature great powers – the wind. At the end check out my awesome karate moves, my wife was impressed!